Mahabub Hossain
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee Executive Director
Millions Fed, Food Security, Minor irrigation, Shallow tubewells, Tube wells, Boro rice, Agricultural policy, Technological progress, Environmental impact, Bangladesh
Crop-Soil-Water Management
Tubewell, Rice
DEVELOPMENT OF MINOR IRRIGATION IN BANGLADESH: When the government’s long-term irrigation policy and water resource development plans were formulated in the 1960s, the general perception among policymakers and civil society was that private investment-based minor irrigation was inappropriate for Bangladesh because of the dominance of small farmers and scattered holdings. Ghulam Mohammad, a noted Pakistani agricultural economist, conducted a survey on the potential of tubewell irrigation in eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1960s and argued that a total of 26,000 private tubewells could be installed if the size of holding was the main criteria ( Mohammed 1966). Today, nearly 1.3 million shallow tubewells (STW) and 31,000 deep tubewells (DTW) operate in Bangladesh and account for 3.98 million ha, or about 80 percent of the total irrigated area in the dry season (GOB 2008). Evolution of Policy Changes on Minor Irrigation Minor irrigation technologies include small-scale devices such as deep tubewells (DTW), shallow tubewells (STW), hand tubewells (HTW), and low-lift pumps (LLP). Low Lift Pumps (LLP)Modern minor irrigation started in Bangladesh in 1962–63, with the supply of LLPs of 1–2 cusec discharge capacity to lift water from surface sources to adjoining fields (Ahmed, Haggblade, and Chowdury 2000; Mandal 1987). The Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) fielded the LLPs in the very low lands (haor areas) of Sylhet and Mymensingh regions to reclaim them for dry-season rice farming (locally known as boro rice). BADC used to own, operate, and maintain these pumping sets, which supplied water to groups of farms on the basis of a flat charge per unit of land per season. The use of the equipment spread quickly in the depressed basins of northeastern and central Bangladesh where surface water was easily available in the dry season. By the mid-1970s, nearly 35,000 LLPs were fielded and the irrigated area reached nearly 0.57 million ha or about three-fourths of the total area under modern irrigation at that time. As the operation of a large fleet of LLPs became an unwieldy task, BADC gradually introduced irrigation management groups. BADC later rented the equipment to farmer groups directly and only kept responsibility for maintenance. Deep Tubewells (DTW): The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) initiated groundwater irrigation in the early 1960s with the installation of 380 four-cusec capacity DTWs in Thakurgaon, a northern district. For many years, the project had limited success, despite a 100 percent subsidy provided on irrigation. Managing a large number of farmers in irrigation groups was a major problem. BADC began a groundwater irrigation program with smaller capacity (two cusec) tubewells. Later, the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) in Comilla also successfully experimented with smaller capacity tubewells and formed cooperatives of small and marginal farmers. This approach was found to be more appropriate for the Bangladeshi agrarian structure. The program was replicated throughout the country by the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), which also took on the responsibility of developing appropriate management systems for the efficient distribution of water among the cooperative’s members. By 1981–82, 12,000 DTWs were under operation and were irrigating 0.32 million ha of land. Shallow Tubewells (STW) and Hand Tubewells: The most recent addition to the list of minor irrigation equipment was STWs of 0.25 to 0.75 cusec capacity, and hand tubewells of 0.02 cusec capacity. Beginning in 1972, BADC imported this equipment—initially renting and later selling it to individual farmers with loans at soft terms from the nationalized commercial banks. The manually-operated hand tubewells initially spread in areas where groundwater was available at upper aquifers. But, due to the heavy labor needed for their operation, the hand tubewells were found to be uneconomical—even with the low opportunity cost of labor—and were discontinued (Mandal 1993). The privately-owned STWs proved to be the most appropriate technology for irrigation development in Bangladesh and their spread continues today.Until the late 1970s, the procurement, installation and distribution, and management of irrigation equipment were controlled by parastatals such as BADC, BWDB, and BRDB. These entities provided subsidies for their operation. With the expansion of these operations, however, the subsidies—for agricultural inputs like irrigation, fertilizer and seeds— began to impose heavy burdens on the government’s budget. Their management also put a burden on limited administrative resources and skills and promoted rent-seeking behavior by the government. The farmers’ cooperatives that managed the equipment also became inefficient and undisciplined, leading to lower-capacity utilization of the machines.In 1979, the government decided to change its policy of direct involvement in the input market and to privatize the marketing of irrigation equipment (along with chemical fertilizers). This policy change involved the selling off of existing and new LLPs and DTWs, initially to farmers’ cooperatives and later to individual farmers. The equipment was sold through a number of private dealers with credit from commercial banks and Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB)—a specialized financial institution set up for the distribution of agricultural credit. The BKB started its own program of providing credit to facilitate the purchase of STWs through its appointed private farms.
IFPRI Discussion Paper 00917 November 2009; This paper has been prepared for the project on Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development (www.ifpri.org/millionsfed)
Report/Proceedings