Farming on the fringe: Shallow groundwater dynamics and irrigation scheduling for maize and wheat in Bangladesh’s coastal delta

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries for climate change in agricultural water management. A research had been done to assess climate change effects on irrigation water use of wheat and maize in the northern part of Bangladesh. The twenty nine years of data (1990-2018) were analyzed with Mann-Kendall test as well as Sen’s slope for climate change impact and the responsible weather parameters due to climate change were identified with correlation coefficients. The crop water requirement of wheat in Bogura and Rangpur was declining at the rate of 3.3mm and 2.3mm per decade respectively. Net irrigation water requirement of wheat at both Bogura and Rangpur was inclining at the rate of 1mm and 10mm per decade respectively because the effective rainfall of these regions was decreasing at 5mm and 11mm per decade respectively. The crop water requirement of maize for similar districts was increasing at the rate of 3.2mm and 2.5mm per decade respectively although net irrigation water requirement had statistically non-significance for climate change effect. The weather parameter, which was mainly responsible for climatic change in irrigation water requirement, was increasing temperature. Therefore, wheat cultivation might be coped with climate change in the northern part of Bangladesh rather than maize on the basis of irrigation and water management.

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confidence: 92%

Climate Change Effect on Irrigation Water Requirement of Wheat and Maize in Northern Part of Bangladesh

Haque

Hossain

Ali

2021

112

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“…This follows from the fact that at all three sites, the evapotranspiration is less than rainfall and most of the crop needs are supplied by the combined water storage of the soil and shallow groundwater. Schulthess et al 61 also found that irrigation had little impact on maize and no impact on wheat in the same area. The impact was significant only in the driest years of their trials 61 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Schulthess et al 61 also found that irrigation had little impact on maize and no impact on wheat in the same area. The impact was significant only in the driest years of their trials 61 . However, the polder model is not a detailed crop model and is not responsive to the timing of irrigation events, some of which may be important 31 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Impact of climate change and management strategies on water and salt balance of the polders and islands in the Ganges delta

Mainuddin

Karim

Gaydon

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Enhancing crop production, particularly by growing a crop in the typically-fallow dry season is a key strategy for alleviating poverty in the Ganges delta region. We used a polder water and salt balance model to examine the impact of several crop management, salt management and climate change scenarios on salinity and crop evapotranspiration at Dacope and Amtali in Bangladesh and Gosaba in India. A key (and unsurprising) finding is that salt management is very important, particularly at the two drier sites, Dacope and Gosaba. Good salt management lowers salinity in the shallow groundwater, soil and water storage ponds, and leads to more irrigation. Climate change is projected to alter rainfall, and this in turn leads to modelled increases or decreases in runoff from the polders, and thence affect salt concentrations in the soil and ponds and canals. Thus, the main impacts of climate change are through the indirect impacts on salt concentrations, rather than the direct impacts of the amount of water supplied as rainfall. Management practices to remove salt from polders are therefore likely to be effective in combatting the impacts of projected climate change particularly at Dacope and Gosaba.

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“…It also aims to achieve the strategic goal of shifting boro rice entirely or partially to the southern coasts to offset the increasing energy costs and massive depletion of groundwater as a result of intensive boro production in northern Bangladesh (Qureshi et al, 2015). The feasibility of this approach is questionable, in lieu of the farmers' preferences to abandon agriculture or grow low-yielding but lowinput-dependent pulses in the dry season (Aravindakshan et al, 2020;Schulthess et al, 2019). In addition, the region experiences increasing soil and water salinity as the dry season progresses-a situation exacerbated by water competition as described above-and extreme weather events, and is at risk of climate change-induced sea-level rise (Krupnik et al, 2017;Qureshi et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-cognitive constraints and opportunities for sustainable intensification in South Asia: insights from fuzzy cognitive mapping in coastal Bangladesh

Aravindakshan

Krupnik

Shahrin

et al. 2021

Environ Dev Sustain

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Appreciating and dealing with the plurality of farmers’ perceptions and their contextual knowledge and perspectives of the functioning and performance of their agroecosystems—in other words, their ‘mental models’—is central for appropriate and sustainable agricultural development. In this respect, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to eradicate poverty and food insecurity by 2030 by envisioning social inclusivity that incorporates the preferences and knowledge of key stakeholders, including farmers. Agricultural development interventions and policies directed at sustainable intensification (SI), however, do not sufficiently account for farmers’ perceptions, beliefs, priorities, or interests. Considering two contrasting agroecological systems in coastal Bangladesh, we used a fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM)-based simulation and sensitivity analysis of mental models of respondents of different farm types from 240 farm households. The employed FCM mental models were able to (1) capture farmers’ perception of farming system concepts and relationships for each farm type and (2) assess the impact of external interventions (drivers) on cropping intensification and food security. We decomposed the FCM models’ variance into the first-order sensitivity index (SVI) and total sensitivity index (TSI) using a winding stairs algorithm. Both within and outside polder areas, the highest TSIs (35–68%) were observed for effects of agricultural extension on changes in other concepts in the map, particularly food security and income (SI indicators), indicating the importance of extension programs for SI. Outside polders, drainage and micro-credit were also influential; within polders, the availability of micro-credit appears to affect farmer perceptions of SI indicators more than drainage. This study demonstrated the importance of reflection on the differing perspectives of farmers both within and outside polders to identify entry points for development interventions. In addition, the study underscores the need for micro-farming systems-level research to assess the context-based feasibility of introduced interventions as perceived by farmers of different farm types.

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Farming on the fringe: Shallow groundwater dynamics and irrigation scheduling for maize and wheat in Bangladesh’s coastal delta

Cited by 26 publications

References 27 publications

Climate Change Effect on Irrigation Water Requirement of Wheat and Maize in Northern Part of Bangladesh

Climate Change Effect on Irrigation Water Requirement of Wheat and Maize in Northern Part of Bangladesh

Impact of climate change and management strategies on water and salt balance of the polders and islands in the Ganges delta

Socio-cognitive constraints and opportunities for sustainable intensification in South Asia: insights from fuzzy cognitive mapping in coastal Bangladesh

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