Abstract : During the 2019 and 2020 seasons, an experiment was conducted at the Karada water requirements research station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Water Management Research Institute, National Water Research Center, Egypt, to investigate the effects of skipping irrigations at various growth stages and foliar spraying by indole acetic acid (IAA) on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the rice cultivar Giza 179. A split-plot design with four replications was used. Main plots were devoted to water treatments i.e., I1= traditional irrigation (control) full irrigation during the season, I2= skipping two irrigation during the tillering stage, I3= skipping two irrigation during the flowering stage, I4= skipping one irrigation at tillering, and one at heading stage I5= skipping one irrigation at tillering and one irrigation at ripening stages and I6= skipping two irrigation during ripening stage. Subplot treatments were devoted to foliar spraying of (IAA), i.e., So= spraying with water (control), S1= 50 mg l-1 of IAA, and S2= 75 mg l-1 of IAA. The results showed that flowering stage was the most vulnerable to the stress of water shortage and escaping irrigation at this stage caused a marked decrease in chlorophyll content in leaves, relative water content (RWC %), flag leaf area, yield, and its components, while increased proline content, peroxidase and catalyse enzymes content in the two growing seasons. Additionally, traditional irrigation had the greatest mean values for seasonal water use and water productivity.