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Opportunities for Nonrice Crops in Flood-prone Environments

Md. Nur-E-Elahi
Rice farming systems division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh

Md. Akhter H. Khan
Rice farming systems division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The lands of Bangladesh have been broadly classified into flood-prone and flood-free, using land appraisal and cropping pattern survey data. The Rice Farming Systems (RFS) Division of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has established the net area covered by rice and nonrice crops grown in different land categories of flood-prone and flood-free environments. About 1.01 million ha remain fallow during the rabi season of seven farming systems and potential opportunities exist for nonrice crops in the flood-prone environment. Moreover, 722,000 ha have the potential to increase the yield of non rice crops through the application of modern technologies.

Keywords: Nonrice crops, Flood-prone, Cropping pattern

Location: All over Bangladesh

Start Date: 00-00-1993

End Date: 00-00-1998

Program Area: Farming System

Commodity: Rice, Water management

Objectives:

To identify the Rice production in flood-prone environment and Nonrice crops production in flood-prone environments.

Methodology:

The area and production scenario of the nonrice crops of Bangladesh for 1993-94 to 1997-98. These data cover both the flood-free and flood-prone lands. For simplicity, nonrice cereals, timbers, pulses, oilseeds, spices, and winter vegetables have been lumped into their respective groups except jute and wheat. Wheat area has increased by 0.2 million ha from 1993-94 to 1997-98 and production by about 0.7 million metric tons. The area under other nonrice cereals remained unchanged, but production tended to decline. Area under tubers has not changed over time, but production showed an increasing trend. The area and production of jute declined sharply in 1995-96 compared with 1994-95. Thereafter, the area and production have increased sharply. An almost static trend in area arid production has been observed for pulses, oilseed, and spices. Though the area of winter vegetables has not changed much, their production has increased gradually. Rice covered 78% of the total cropped area and represented 74% of the total crop production. Among the nonrice crops, pulses covered 6% of the area, fol- lowed by wheat (5%) and oilseeds (4%). Similarly, tuber crops had the highest production share (7%) and spices the lowest (1 %). Wheat had a 6% share of the total crop production. The data mentioned above clearly suggest scope for increasing the area and production of nonrice crops to reduce the gap between the requirement and production of the Country. To achieve the target, avenue have to be explored from both flood-free and flood-prone lands. Area coverage statistics in rice and different nonrice crops for different flood-free and flood-prone land categories were not available. Rice area coverage in all land categories is higher compared with that of other nonrice crops. In the flood-free environment, rice area is also higher (56%) than in the flood-prone situation (44%). Similarly, the area of wheat, jute, and rabi crops is also higher in the flood-free environment than in the flood-prone environment. However, the reverse scenario is observed for potato and mustard. Among the nonrice crops, area coverage for the rabi crops in the flood-prone environment is the highest (0.56 million ha). Wheat (0.29 million ha) ranked second and mustard (0.242 million ha) third. Furthermore, in the flood-prone environment, rice still covered more area (68%) than the nonrice crops. This situation clearly explains the necessity of exploring the opportunities for exploiting more area that had remained fallow in the existing farming systems.

Source of Information: Rice Research and Development in the Flood-Prone Ecosystem. Proceeding of the international workshop on flood-prone rice systems held in Gazipur, Bangladesh, 9-11 January 2001. International Rice Research Institute. 283 p. P87-97, ISBN 971-22-0197-X

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Two strategies for exploiting the opportunities of nonrice crops for flood-prone environments are to (1) bring more area under nonrice crops and (2) increase the current yield levels of nonrice crops already being cultivated in the existing farming systems. For the first strategy, the flood-prone environment has about 1.01 million ha under seven farming systems: fallow-T, aus-T. aman; fallow-B. aus-T. aman; fallow-fallow-T. aman; fallow-deepwater aman; fallow-B. aus + B. aman; boro-fallow-T. aman; and boro-fallow-fallw. in these systems, opportunities exist for cultivating nonrice crops during the rabi season. In the second strategy, on about 722,000 ha of land, farmers are already cultivating wheat, potato, mustard, and other rabi crops in different farming systems of flood-prone lands. The yields of these crops are low compared with the national average yield. However, at the research level, the yields of these crops are higher with modem management packages. The application of modem technologies on the 722,000 ha where wheat, potato, mustard, and rabi crops are already being grown would provide an opportunity for increasing productivity to a greater extent.

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