Modern irrigation tech contributes saving water in Rajshahi Barind

Abu Zafar Ahmed, a farmer of Mohanpur village
under Godagari upazila, has been cultivating guava on eight bighas of land
for the last couple of years.

He had to arrange irrigation to the orchard regularly through a pump by
burning 50-60 liters of diesel per week as there was no deep tube-well.

In order to curtail his excessive irrigation cost Ahmed installed a solar
power dependent drip irrigation technology in his guava orchard with
financial support from the recently phase-out Integrated Water Resource
Management (IWRM) project.

At present, there is no irrigation cost, but previously, he had to spend Taka
15,000 per month on an average for only irrigation purposes.

The IWRM project provided 80 percent and he spent the rest twenty percent of
the Taka 5.5 lakh scheme.

Not only Ahmed’s orchard, four other drip units were commissioned in other
areas irrigating more than 40 bighas of farmlands.

Shafiul Islam Mukta, a resident of Godagari upazila said, has developed three
dragon orchards on 52 bighas of land in Gogram and Matikata areas.

Relating to the production cost, he said around Taka 2.60 lakh is required
for dragon farming on one bigha of land.

Different types of modern and cost-effective irrigation technologies are
being promoted in the region including its vast Barind tract, in order to
reduce the gradual mounting cost for irrigation besides boosting soil
productivity.

Many of the farmers avail the scopes of being familiarized with water saving
technologies like drip irrigation, fertigation and alternate furrow
irrigation in their farmlands in the region during last Rabi season.

Non government organisation-DASCOH Foundation and Swiss Red Cross has
implemented the IWRM project in drought-affected 39 Unions and three
municipalities in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts supported
by Switzerland.

Jahangir Alam Khan, who was coordinator of the IWRM project, said they worked
with the main thrust of building the UP like local government institutions as
effective and pro-people institutions through farmers’ level sustainable
water resource management amidst people participation.

He said the drip irrigation method consumes 50 to 60 percent less water than
that of conventional systems.

The solar system pump has capacity to provide irrigation to more than 2,000
bighas of cropland round the year.

The method also helps to reduce fertilizer use by at least 45 percent as it
has provision of mixing fertilizer with irrigation water.

As the system is dependent on solar power the matter of fuel saving is also
important. So, time has come to expand such a method furthermore in the
Barind area.

Khan also said many of the entrepreneurs have set up dragon orchards and are
doing successful business in different areas of the dried region after the
best uses of drip irrigation technology.

Gogram UP Chairman Mujibur Rahman said the newly-commissioned solar power-
based drip irrigation pumps have opened up a new door in the agriculture
sector as farmers can boost their farming yields through the irrigation
facilities round the year.

In addition to benefiting the farmers economically, the pumps are
contributing to reduce the gradually increasing pressure on power supply.

Prof Mijanur Rahman of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences
in Rajshahi University said the power produced through fossil fuel is carbon
contaminated and that it always pollutes the environment.

Besides, its production cost is high. However, the solar system power
generation is a new idea, which is renewable, less production cost and
carbon-free.

As a whole, the solar system has a significant contribution towards lessening
the pressure on the gradually increasing power demands. He said the farmers
will no longer depend on the mercy of power supply for crop production if the
solar irrigation system functions successfully. (BSS)