Rescheduling of Wet Season (T. Aman) Rice Planting for Cropping Intensification in Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

About 1.0 million ha coastal lands in Bangladesh are mono-cropped suffer from varying degree of soil salinity, waterlogging and climate vulnerability. Low yielding, traditional T. Aman rice is grown only in wet season. Growing non-rice crop after late harvested T. Aman rice is not profitable. This study was aimed to introduce high yielding, short duration T. Aman rice varieties for advancing its harvesting time and to make the avenue for timely establishment of dry season crops. Varietal trials were made at Dacope and Amtali under ACIAR funded project during 2016-2018 and compared with local cultivars. Among tested varieties BRRI dhan76 followed by BRRI dhan77 and BRRI dhan54 in Dacope and BRRI dhan77 followed by BRRI dhan76 and BRRI dhan54 in Amtali were preferred for 0.5–1.0 tha−1 yield advantage and 15–25 days earliness compared to traditional varieties. Early harvesting of T. Aman created the avenue of timely establishment of rice and non-rice crops depending on availability of fresh water and thus crop intensification and land productivity was improved. The new cropping system increased annual rice yield and farmers’ profits by 1.5- to 2-folds compared with traditional system without environmental degradation. This technique can be replicated in similar coastal zones of Bangladesh.

Can crop production intensification through irrigation be sustainable? An ex-ante impact study of the south-central coastal zone of Bangladesh

“…The ex-ante analysis considers the baseline water level and salinity conditions of 2015. It assesses the potential impact of Previous analyses have shown that under baseline conditions, there is plenty of fresh water for irrigation in much of the Barisal division throughout the dry season [26,46,47]. Freshwater availability is abundant due to the connectivity of these rivers to the lower Meghna River.…”

The impact of climate change, population growth and development on sustainable water security in Bangladesh to 2100

“…Rice and wheat yields have increased substantially in recent decades 15,17,[47][48][49] . Yields in current rice farming systems are about 50% below the potential yield 50 , and 20 to 30% below those that can be achieved with better practice [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] . Continuing large increases in rice yield are regarded as achievable 59 .…”

“…Increased cropping in the southwest is government policy 27 . Management systems have been developed that very significantly increase crop yields and production in the coastal zone of the southwest [51][52][53][54]57,58,63,[70][71][72][73][74] . Hence northwest groundwater problems could be eased greatly with right policy mix, even in the face of extreme hot/ dry climate change.…”

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

“…The Governments of Bangladesh and West Bengal have developed comprehensive master plans for the agricultural development of the region to increase productivity and cropping intensity thus improving food security and livelihood 17 , 21 of the population. Traditionally, farms produce low-yielding local rice varieties under rainfed conditions in the wet season 11 , 22 – 24 . In the dry season, most agricultural land remains fallow due to: (1) late wet season harvesting and prolonged waterlogging (which delays the planting of Rabi crops exposing the late planted crops to high soil salinity and untimely rains during the later part of the season), and (2) the lack (or perceived lack) of good quality irrigation water for Rabi season irrigation 9 , 11 , 23 .…”