Farmer Management of Groundwater Irrigation in Asia: Utilization of Water under Different Deep Tubewell Management Systems in the Rajshahi Area of Bangladesh

A STUDY WAS conducted in the deep tubewell (D1W) irrigation projects of Rajshahi. The D1WS were operated under four different management systems, i.e., Barind Integrated Area Develop­ment Project (BIADP) of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), BADC Rental Program, Rental-Rajshahi Krishi Unyan Bank (RAKUB), and private systems (owned by farmers). In BIADP Project, informal groups are provided with deep tubewells and the groups are to pay irrigation charges based on estimated command area. Management responsibility lies with the farmer groups or the leaders of such groups but BADC retains enough control on the wells to ensure that irrigation charges are paid by the group. The farmer groups pay BADC an annual rent ofTaka(Tk) 5,000 (approximately US$135.14) in the rental program. The groups are responsible for operation and maintenance costs. BADC retains some responsibilitie􀀚 for repair, but has little control over management aspects. The government has been selling D1Ws to farmer groups since 1973. The groups are responsible for all aspects of operation and management. The rental program of BADC is supported by RAKUB for seasonal crop production credit requirements. Credit is provided for operation and maintenance (0&M) and other relevant services. Raj shahi is a dry area of the country where temperature ranges from 5 to 46°C and total rainfall during the months of May to September is around 1,200 millimeters (mm). A negligible amount of rain occurs during the months of October to April. The soils range from clay to loam with seepage and percolation rates of 2.3 to 3.5 mm/day. The dominant cropping patterns of the area are boro-fallow-aman, wheat-aus-aman, and potato-aus-aman. Water distribution in each D1W is characterized by block rotation as well as by head-, middle- and tail-rotation systems. The designed discharge of each D1W was 56.6 liters per second (lps). But actual discharge varied from 26 to 51 lps. Discharge of all the wells were below the designed capacity. Full irrigation was applied for the boro season and supplementary irrigation was applied during the aman season.