Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

strategies are suggested in this paper which may
make significant contribution to the overall
agricultural development of the country.
Professional experiences indicate that if crop water
requirements can be met, household water supply
may not be a problem, as agriculture is the major
user of water resources.
METHODOLOGY
Land area especially cultivable area and water
resources, which include rain, surface, and ground
water of the above zones to be carefully estimated.
Land area of each zone should be further estimated
in relation to flooding conditions (Fo to F4 types of
lands). Potential crops for the zones and its specific
localities to be selected reviewing farming system
research data from the research institutes and
extension department. Production maximization
packages to be developed with assistance of the
farmers and extension agents. Government
machinery to provide advisory services for input
supports and market information. No price support
or subsidy is expected from the government but
facilitating roles are expected. Agricultural
production, which includes crop, fishery, forestry
and livestock, can be increased through integrated
use of water and land resources. The strategy should
be to increase production per unit of land, unit of
water and unit of time. In this paper, water
conservation cum water harvesting methods is dealt
with separately for each region as the regions have
unique water environments.
Northwest Region
Northwest region covers the area under present
Rajshahi division and greater Kushtia and Jessore
districts which coincides with full of NW and part
of SW of the Hydrological Regions (Table 1)
suggested by the Water Resources Planning
Organization (WARPO). Most part of this area has
low rainfall but fewer subjects to flood damages.
However, this area which has net cultivable area
(NCA) of about 2.94 Mha, has dependable
groundwater and can be brought under double/triple
cropping with conjunctive use and improved
management of water resources. This is the most
potential area for agricultural development and may
be subdivided into Barind tract, Atrai basin and the
remaining area as NW plain land.
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Barind tract: The Barind tract is located in the low
rainfall area (about 125 cm /year) of Bangladesh
and has hard red soil. High temperature in the
summer (which goes above 40 degrees Celsius) with
low humidity and rainfall has distinguished Barind
tract of about 1.4 Mha from other parts of the
country. There is very limited source of surface
water and water availability in the dry season is a
major constraint for crop cultivation in the area.
Groundwater is a dependable source of irrigation
in the area and can cover about 60% of the Brind
tract. However, groundwater level goes below
suction limit especially during the dry months
(March to May), therefore, high cost tubewells are
required for providing irrigation. Moreover, part of
the area is showing symptom of arsenic
contamination and will require especial attention
for water management and year-round use of
groundwater. However, surface water conservation
is possible in the rivers, low-lying areas including
beels and ponds. This is also required for other areas
of the country as out of 32 agro-ecological-region
(AER), only 13 have ample surface water for year
round use (UNDP & FAO, 1988)
There are about 32,000 ponds in the Barind
Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA)
project area and about 70,000 ponds in the entire
Barind area (personal communication with BMDA).
These ponds were used for supplemental irrigation
for transplanted Aman ( transplanted paddy grown
during June/July to November) during earlier days.
Most of the ponds are silted and will require reexcavation
for their effective use. The project
management have program of re-excavating all the
ponds. These ponds vary in size and their waterbody
varies from 0.13 to 0.40 ha. These ponds after
re-excavation can be used for accumulating excess
rainwater during the rainy season and can be
subsequently used for supplemental irrigation,
household uses and fish cultivation. Banks and the
adjacent land area around the ponds can be used
for afforestation and vegetable cultivation through
participatory management with local poor people
which will further help in poverty reduction in
addition to water conservation for agricultural and
household uses.
There are about 25 major beels (low lying areas)
in Barind area which retain adequate water over the
year in most years except during the abnormally dry