Widespread adoption of the Alternate Wetting and Drying irrigation method can save significant volume of water and can markedly reduce methane emissions during rice cultivation, according to experts and farmers.
The AWD technique allows rice fields to dry for a few days before re-irrigation without yielding loss, instead of keeping the fields continuously flooded, they said.
Farmers who have adopted the technique said that the method reduced the irrigation cost as they ran water pumps less than they ran in the traditional irrigation technique.聽聽聽
Experts and agricultural scientists noted that the technique could contribute to a sustainable agricultural practice as it could deliver benefits in increasing farmers鈥� incomes, saving groundwater and helping the climate by reducing methane emission.
The Department of Agricultural Extension and several government and non-governmental organisations, including Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Sonar Bangla Foundation and Poverty Alleviation through Participatory Rural Initiatives are working to promote the AWD across the country.
Sonar Bangla Foundation, in cooperation with Share the Planet, has brought about 600 households of rice farmers under the AWD technique in Jhenaidah鈥檚 Kaliganj upazila.
During a recent field visit to Kaliganj, the farmers talked about their benefits with 抖阴精品.
Farmer Kamlesh Sharma, a farmer cultivating rice on three acres of land for past five years, said, 鈥極n an average, the irrigation cost during the boro season was around Tk 10,000 and it has now been reduced to about Tk 7,000 in the AWD technique.鈥�
Farmer Amirul Islam said that the 12-inch PVC pipe in the AWD technique, six-inch with holes on all sides below the surface and six-inch without holes above the surface, helped him to know the water level in the field.
鈥楾he AWD can contribute to save about 20 per cent of underground water as it allows 10 to 20 times less irrigation,鈥� Mahbubul Alam, principal scientific officer of irrigation and water management division at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, said, adding that聽 farmers have to irrigate their land 15 to 30 times in traditional irrigation.
He said that about 20,000 million cubic metre of underground water was used in boro rice irrigation in Bangladesh, the third-largest rice producer globally producing about 3.91 crore tonnes of rice.聽
Boro, an irrigation-intensive crop, accounts for more than half of all rice production, while aman accounts for 40 per cent and aus 8 per cent.
Mozammel Haque, senior scientific officer at BRRI and researcher on greenhouse gas emission from paddy field, noted that continuous flooding in rice cultivation stimulates methane production, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide in global warming.
Mozammel said, 鈥楾he estimated methane emission from rice field in the country is about 1.39 to 1.56 million tonnes annually.鈥�
AWD can contribute to reducing methane emissions by 25 per cent to 30 per cent, Mozammel added.
Moreover, linking the AWD to international carbon markets and selling carbon credits can generate revenue and benefit the farmers, said Mozammel.
The IFAD, under its Reducing Agricultural Methane Programme, is working to promote the AWD technique in the country.
Valantine Achancho, IFAD country director for Bangladesh, said that IFAD was partnering with stakeholders to raise awareness, build capacity, and support the government and national partners to accelerate the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices through the RAMP project.
Valantine said, 鈥楶romoting the AWD practices is essential to enhance the resilience of rural communities, advancing Bangladesh鈥檚 climate agenda, and securing a more sustainable future for its agricultural sector.鈥�
Jiban Krishna Biswas, rice scientist and former BRRI director general, said that there existed some challenges in widespread adoption of the AWD and the government was needed to take steps aligning it with national strategies.
Jiban added that as most of the farmers did not have their own pumps and they bought water from pump owners in flat-rate irrigation charges, the government must ensure a system where farmers could pay based on the amount of water they would use.
