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Water Productivity of Modern Variety of Paddy Production: Rice‐prawn and Year‐round Paddy Farming Systems in Bangladesh

Basanta Kumar Barmon*
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics, East West University, Dhaka-1212.

Takumi Kondo
Department Agricultural Economics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan.

Fumio Osanami
Department Agricultural Economics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The Rice-prawn gher farming system is an indigenous technology combined form of aquaculture and agriculture solely developed by local farmers since 1980s in southwestern Bangladesh. This paper aims to estimate the water productivity of modern variety (MV) of paddy production under rice-prawn gher (RPG) and year' round modern variety (YRMV) of paddy farming system. The findings of the study indicate that the water productivity of MV paddy production was significantly higher (more than two times) in RPG farming than YRMV paddy farming system. Water use efficiency of irrigation system to MV paddy production was also higher in RPG farming than YRMV paddy farming. Water wastage such as water outflow and runoff were minimum in RPG farming because each gher plot has its own canals that retain sufficient water for irrigation, and runoff and outflow water goes into the same canals and recycles the water as irrigation again and again during the crop growth period. On the other hand, a significant amount of water is used for unproductive purposes such as water outflow and runoff during irrigation to paddy fields for long-distance paddy fields from the source of irrigation in YRMV paddy farming. Per ha irrigation cost of MV paddy production was also lower in RPG farming than YRMV paddy farming system in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Water Productivity, Modern Variety, Paddy Production, Bangladesh

Location: Bilpabla in Khulna and Chanchra village in Jessore District, Southwestern Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Crop-Soil-Water Management

Commodity: Water productivity, Rice

Objectives:

The present study evaluates the impacts of RPG farming on water productivity and water use efficiency for MV paddy production in Bangladesh.

Methodology:

To assess the impacts of the technologically advanced RPG farming system on water productivity for MV paddy production, two contrasting villages' RPG farming systems for Bilpabla in Khulna and YRMV paddy farming for Chanchra village in Jessore District were selected. The Bilpabla Village was selected purposely because the people have vast experience of RPG farming system like other parts of Khulna District and they directly or indirectly depend on their daily livelihood on various gher' farming activities. On the other hand, Chanchra Village located in Jessore District was also purposely selected because the farmers cultivate MV paddy throughout the year. Moreover, Jessore is neighbour of Khulna District. Ninety RPG farmers and 100 YRMV paddy farmers were randomly selected. The farm survey was carried out during November 2006 based on the agricultural cropping year 2005.

Moreover, two case studies (two gher farming–named RPG-1 and RPG-2 in the discussion section) were also considered for the study to measure the water level of gher plot during one year rice and prawn production cycle. The water level in canal (from bottom of canal to ridge of paddy field) and mid paddy field of gher plots (from the bottom of paddy field to dike of gher plot) was measured in every week (after every seven days) from 1 May 2006 to 30 April 2007 and registered in a record book. In addition, the quantity of water (m3) used as irrigation was also measured during MV boro paddy production in RPG farming system.

3.0 Concept of Water Productivity In general, productivity is a measure of performance expressed as the ratio of output to input. Water productivity is defined as the ratio of the per-unit amount of grain yield to per unit of water used in crop production. Depending on the water flows, water productivity can be defined as paddy grain yield per unit water evapotranspired or grain yield per unit total water input including irrigation and rainfall (Bouman and Tuong 2001). The numerator (output derived from water use) can be defined in the following two ways' either physical output that can be total biomass or harvestable product or economic output that can be the monetary value of the output of agricultural production. The water input can be specified as volume (m³) or as the value of water expressed as the highest opportunity cost in alternative uses of the water. The economic output (monetary unit) is particularly convenient than physical output to measure the water productivity when comparing different crops or different types of water use (Playan and Mateos 2006). Water productivity can be increased by increasing yield and/or reducing water use. Bouman and Tuong (2001) showed that water productivity depends on water evapotranspiration. A wide variation of evapotranspiration reflects the large variation of grain yield in the lowland of paddy production in the tropics. The yield also depends on the variety of germplasm of MV paddy and production environments such as climate, soil characteristics, and production management. A large number of studies have been explained on water productivity on MV paddy production on the basis of rain and irrigated water in tropical countries. The present study considers monetary values of water usage in MV boro paddy production because of the lack of data on the total quantity of water usage per unit MV boro paddy production in YRMV paddy farming system. Moreover, the evapotranspiration of water, outflows, runoff and leakage of water from MV paddy field have ignored due to lake of data as well as for the sake of simplicity of the calculation of water productivity of MV boro paddy production between RPG and YRMV paddy farming.

4.0 Rice-prawn Gher Farming System The term rice-prawn gher refers to a modification of paddy fields that has been used for prawn and paddy cultivation. The midfield (locally known as Chatal) of gher is surrounded by high wide dikes and canals that lies the periphery of the dikes. The whole land of gher is filled up with rainwater from June to December and resemble to a pond. During this time, farmers cultivate prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) and fish (Catla catla; Labeo rohita; Cirrhina mrigala; Cyprinus carpio; Puntius sarana; Pungasias pangasias, etc.). The entire land becomes dry naturally from January to April except canals. The canals retain sufficient water for MV boro paddy during this time. As a result, farmers can grow MV boro paddy on chatal.

Source of Information: Asia Pacific Journal of Rural Development; Vol. XVIII, No. 2, December 2008

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

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Achievement/Findings:

Rice-prawn gher is an indigenous technology combined form of aquaculture and agriculture solely developed by farmers since the mid-1980s. RPG farming has significant impacts on water productivity for MV boro paddy production compared to YRMV paddy farming. Water input also efficiently used in RPG farming than YRMV farming. Unproductive water runoff and/or water outflows are very small during irrigation times of crop growth period MV paddy production in RPG farming than YRMV paddy farming. Moreover, large-scale water is required for soaking of land preparation for paddy transplanting in YRMV paddy farming. As groundwater is used in MV paddy production, the paddy fields were affected by sanitization. Preserved water that comes from rainfall and flooding in the rainy season, used in MV paddy production in RPG farming system. Therefore, it could be concluded that RPG farming has significant impacts on water production and paddy grain yield in comparison to YRMV paddy farming in southwestern Bangladesh.

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