In order to provide basic information for the estimation of evapotranspiration in the ponded direct seeding paddy field, both field lysimeter experiment and model prediction were performed to estimate daily ET. Various methods were used to predict daily reference crop ET and crop coefficients. Measure4 mean daily ET during the 1995 growing season varied from 5.9 to 6.1 mm depending on the species, while it varied from 5.1 to 5.5 mm in 1996. Model predicted mean daily ET during the 1995 growing season varied from 3.9 to 4.9 mm depending on the prediction model, while it varied from 3.5 to 4.7 mm in 1996. The smaller ET values both measured and predicted in 1996 were caused by the low values of temperature, sunshine hours, and solar radiation. Crop coefficients varied from 1.20 to 1.50 in 1995 depending on the prediction model, while it varied from 1.10 to 1.47 in 1996. Comparison of the seven reference crop ET prediction methods used in this study shows that the Penman-Monteith method and the FAO-Radiation method gave the lowest ET while the corrected Penman method and the Hargreaves method gave the largest ET. Since crop coefficients vary to a large extent based on the prediction methods, reference crop ET prediction method should be carefully selected in irrigation planning