Seasons and seasonal activities in Bangladeshi floodplains before taking up the set of problems under study, it is worth briefly considering the situation that prevailed prior to the introduction of large-scale flood control, and before relent-less population pressure started to be exerted on floodplain resources. In lowland areas, deep-water rice used to be a major crop in the flood season. Deep-water rice is a flood-tolerant, but relatively low-yielding, rice variety that has the remarkable feature of being able to elongate its stem with rising floodwaters to protect the plant from destruction.Correspondingly less water regulation was needed under deep-water rice, and plots of deep-water rice also provided more vegetative cover for fish habitat during the flood season.After drawdown, substantial areas would be planted to non-rice crops, such as pulses, during the dry season. These alternative crops were of low value, but had relatively low water requirements, and came off the land well in advance of the new flood season. Very low lying land would be given over to dry-season water cover, ensuring plentiful habitat for the overwintering fish resident in the floodplains.With the advent of flood control, small-scale irrigation, and increasing population pressure, the production landscape of the floodplain has completely changed. We now turn to describe this new state of affairs.Economic activity on the floodplains of Bangladesh is intricately connected with the flooding regime, as are the fishing and agricultural cycles. Most households, whether farming or landless households have some involvement in both farming and fishing during the course of the year. This is almost unavoidable, since the entire floodplain is water-logged during the flood season, with open access to fishing, and few other livelihood alternatives available while the flood-season rice is growing.3 During the dry season, the agricultural activity takes a frenetic pace since the cultivation of modern varieties of irrigated rice is a labour intensive process; agricultural employment opportunities are thus available for all, including the landless. The narrative that follows describes the seasonal flooding, farming and fishing calendars, complemented by the diagram. Rising and peak flood (mid-June to mid-October)With heavy precipitation falling on the floodplain and over-bank flooding from the rivers commencing, the water level in the beels (floodplain depressions retaining water through-out the dry season) starts to rise rapidly in mid-June. Various water bodies that had become disconnected during the dry season are reconnected, and the beel-resident fish move out onto the floodplain. By mid-June, the dry-season rice has been harvested, the flood-season rice planted, and few agricultural opportunities are available. Once the rice fields are underwater, the land becomes common fishing property.The low opportunity cost of time coupled with this change in property rights implies that most households are involved in fishing, including women and children. This is in spite of the fact that fishing is inefficient at this time since the floodplain fish are dispersed over a large expanse of water. 2.2. Drawdown (mid-October to December) Around mid-October, the water slowly begins to drain off the higher elevations and recede into the lower-lying areas, such as beels. The fish also move, along with the water, into deeper portions of the beels, canals and other residual water bodies. Water bodies begin to get disconnected, and the fish thus become concentrated in small areas, and easy to catch. The flood-season, man, rice is harvested in October/November, and preparations for planting the dry-season, boro rice begins with seedbed preparation in November. Thus agricultural activity picks up considerably in this period. Fishing continues unabated and even intensifies since this activity is often complementary to agriculture during this period. Laborers, hired to work on boro seedbeds, also drain plots and remove the fish, keeping a share of the catch for themselves (FAP 17, 1994). Access to fishing gradually becomes restricted, as the borders of individual plots emerge and become visible. 2.3. Early dry season (January–March)By the time the dry-season (boro) rice is planted, floodwaters have drained off the elevated lands in the floodplain and the shallower beels are also dry. Agricultural activity in January and February is intense, with the germinated boro rice seedlings now being ready to be transplanted onto the plots. Private rights to floodplain lands begin to be asserted.As FAP 17 (1994) notes, not only are landowners increasingly claiming the right to begin cultivation on their lands earlier and earlier in the season, but they also claim exclusive fishing rights in the waters covering their plots. Thus, throughout the drawdown season, some landowners may not allow other fishers to operate in their area, claiming that ownership of the plot also implies exclusive rights to the fish that have congregated there. Officially, such fishing rights do not exist, but the skewed balance of social power enables landowners to enforce such claims. Fish that do manage to survive this period have the potential to spawn in the next period, ensuring stock for the next year. This is the prime growing period for dry-season rice, and rice plots are often irrigated with what water remains in the bells and canals. 2.4. Late dry season/pre-monsoon season (April–May)By April, water remains only in the deeper sections of the bells and rivers, and perhaps in various minor depressions that have not been dewatered. Harvesting of the dry-season (boro) rice starts in mid-April, and the following weeks are characterized by concentrated activity to complete the harvest. The opportunity cost of time is high for most house-hold groups, because of the demand for labour generated by the on-going harvest activities. The floodplain-resident(non-migratory) fish that survive the dry-season are concentrated in deeper beel and river areas. This is the spawning period for the resident fish that have remained uncaught, and their preservation is essential to ensure sufficient recruitment of juvenile fish into the next flood year. Later in the season, the first rainstorms arrive and there can be temporary surges in the level of water in the beels and rivers. The migratory species of fish also begin their spawning runs up the rivers at this time, entering the floodplain, with their larvae developing as this period ends and the new flood year begins. Unfettered access to the floodplain at the tail end of this period, and at the start of the next flood period(rising floods), is important for the propagation of these valuable migratory species.3. A suite of dry season problems: This section considers three major constraints in hydro-logically modified floodplains that directly or indirectly have an influence on fish catches during the dry season:•Sluice gate management;•Water abstraction for irrigation; and •Risk of early flooding. 3.1. Sluice gate management: Slice gates in flood control structures are operated to benefit dry-season rice production, and is usually done to the detriment of the fishery. The political economy of land and water use in Bangladesh is dominated by agricultural interests who determine use priorities, and often assert rights’ where none legally exist. Fisher groups are usually of low social standing, and are often dependent on the richer, landed class for financial help, for instance in acquiring leases, purchasing gear, etc., and have little bargaining power (Toufique, 1999). Thus, decisions affecting the entire community are often made by a small set of influential land-owners, typically medium- or large-scale farmers. The practice adopted for opening and closing of sluice gates is an important example of this influence. Sluice operations are typically determined by officials of the local Bangladesh water development boards (BWDBs) in consultation with local farmers. During the dry season, the priority is usually to allow the water to drain quickly off the flood plain lands, beginning with the flood drawdown in October and November, so that dry-season, boro, rice may be planted to as large an area as possible. Opening sluice gates to maximize drainage after drawdown, and further draining large areas of residual water by mechanical means, frees up even low lying beels and otherwise waterlogged lands for cultivation. 3.2. Water abstraction for rice irrigation: Rice is, of course, a water-intensive crop. While the priority during flood drawdown is to get the water off the land to plant the rice, the priority during the dry season (January–May) is to maintain ponded levels of water in the paddy fields. Groundwater may provide the bulk of irrigation in Bangladesh, but in areas adjacent to beels and khals (canals) that retain water during the dry season, abstracting surface water for irrigation is an obvious temptation. The consequent rapid desiccation of available water bodies diminishes the critical dry-season habitat of the fish and threatens particularly the blackfish species, resident in the floodplain.