Adaptive research helps fight famine in Bangladesh

Rice is life in Bangladesh

For 148 million Bangladeshis, rice provides on average 75% of their daily calorie intake. Just as importantly, agriculture employs about 65% of the workforce. In rural communities, income from rice still significantly determines the level of secondary schooling reached.

In the districts of Rangpur and Dinajpur in northern Bangladesh, the rural poor face famine in October and November because of seasonal scarcity of agricultural employment. In Rangpur, about 50% of the 600,000 households face hunger during this period, which in Bengali is known as monga. Half of these households that face severe hunger consume only one meal a day for 4–7 days a week during monga. To try to alleviate some of this hardship, the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), local nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) have collaborated to increase the livelihood options available to farmers through rice cultivation.

Direct-seeded rice and weed management
Dr. M.A. Mazid, an agronomist of the BRRI, and Dr. David Johnson, a weed scientist of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), have worked together with funding from the IRRC to verify the potential of direct-seeded rice (DSR) as an option to transplanted rice in different cropping systems. In Bangladesh, direct seeding allows the crop to be harvested earlier, because the crop duration is shorter than for transplanted rice and, often, DSR can be established earlier than transplanted rice as it is not necessary to “puddle” the land. Initially, DSR became a research focus because, as put succinctly by Dr. Johnson, “It takes about 500 millimeters of cumulative rainfall for a farmer to be able to establish a rice crop through transplanting. If farmers direct-seed, they can establish the crop from about one-third of that.”

By direct seeding, farmers can avoid the hardships of 2003, 2004, and 2005, when the monsoon rains arrived so late that a crop could not be established in time. So, the timing of crop establishment is the key (see “The Direct Approach,” Rice Today, April-June 2006). The earlier harvest increases the chance that there will be sufficient soil moisture and rainfall to grow a second crop such as chickpea, maize, potato, or vegetables. Further, labor is in high demand at the planting stage of the crop and costs therefore escalate. DSR helps reduce the labor required for crop establishment and even out the labor demand by providing job opportunities over a longer period.

A major constraint to growing DSR is the increased weed problems compared with the more traditional transplanting of rice seedlings. To help overcome the weed problems, current activities have drawn on past collaborative work in India and Bangladesh with the Natural Resources Institute of the UK.

Dr. Mazid and Dr. Johnson have focused on the benefits and challenges of different crop establishment technologies and how these can be integrated into different rice production technologies. Together with the local NGOs, they have taken their DSR and weed management technologies to the poor farmers and worked closely with them in testing and verifying their potential.

In 2007, the importance of timely crop establishment through using DSR was demonstrated not by the late arrival of the monsoons but by the massive and destructive floods that occurred in late July. Upendra Nathray, a struggling farmer from Nilpharami district, explains, “I planted my crop using a drum seeder. This is the first time I used this technology. I planted my crop early. After 2 weeks, the crop looked sickly and I wanted to destroy the crop and go back to transplanting. I was talked out of doing this by the local NGO staff (who work closely with Dr. Mazid). I reluctantly agreed to wait another week. And then the heavy rains began. The recently transplanted rice was destroyed by the floods. The DSR was strong and tall enough to survive. Now my crop is the best in the village! I am now convinced of the benefits of DSR and I tell my neighbors that they, too, should try this technology.”

DSR provides hope for fighting monga
The early establishment of a DSR crop using a drum seeder or a lithao (a low-cost metal plow drawn by two people), combined with a shorter duration variety of rice, provides an opportunity for crops to be harvested during the monga. Recent trials have shown that the shorter duration rice saves 20–25 days and DSR saves 10–15 days during the rice-growing season. Together, this means the crop will be harvested in mid-October rather than in late November, providing life-saving job opportunities for the landless poor. Dr. Mazid has estimated that 63 person-days per hectare will be used for the rice harvest.

But the benefit does not stop there. The early harvest of the crop means that, in addition to the traditional two rice crops, there is an opportunity for a third crop. Around Rangpur, potato is usually followed by maize being planted in the associated furrows. These crops provide important income for the poor farmers and essential labor opportunities during the monga for the landless families, who are classified as ultra-poor. Some 53 person-days per hectare over a 15-day period will be used.

Achievements thus far—the importance of partnering
In 2007, some 202 farmers have been involved in trying DSR technology in six districts in northern Bangladesh in the T. aman wet-season crop. These trials have been established over a large geographic area—the sites are up to 100 kilometers apart. This was made possible by conducting training courses directed at “training of trainers” from November 2006 to June 2007. Key participants at these training courses have been field staff from four NGOs—Inter-Cooperation (IC), Uday Uonkar Seba Songstha (USS), Gramen Atto Unnyon Songstha (GAUS), and Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Bangladesh, and staff from the Department of Agricultural Extension.

The NGO staff members have been advising farmers, and, if they are unsure about any issues, they have immediate access to Dr. Mazid via his mobile phone.

Dr. Mazid and Dr. Johnson have also advised the trainers on seed varieties, how to maintain the quality of the next season’s seed, optimal application of nutrients (based on recommendations that arose from collaborative studies between BRRI and IRRC scientists during Phase II of the IRRC), and effective weed management. This integrated approach has impressed the farmer groups that we visited in August—for example, we met with more than 60 farmers (including 25 women) in Nilphamari and they highlighted how pleased they were to receive up-to-date advice on a systems approach for growing and maintaining an early DSR crop.

What next?
There are three priorities for the immediate future:
(i) DSR technology is knowledge-intensive. DSR (wet- or dry-seeded) and transplanted rice each have their niche in the rice production system in Rajshahi Division. A simple decision tree needs to be promoted (see box).
(ii) Scaling out of DSR through NGOs, provincial NGOs (PNGOs), and farmer field schools (FFS). The PNGOs provide master trainers for FFS. For example, if the IRRC links with RSDS, they have staff directly responsible for 25 PNGOs, which in turn service 100 FFS with 25 households on average in each field school. Working through RSDS can provide access to 50,000 farmer households!
From a research perspective, we need to develop a good understanding of the social and cultural triggers and blocks for effective transfer of knowledge-intensive technologies such as DSR. Our NGO partners have the expertise on the best way to present information—we will work closely with them on developing a communication strategy.
(iii) Quantitative assessment of the economic and social impacts of the DSR technologies through household surveys.

Other IRRC research in Bangladesh: water
management—an emerging issue
In December 2005 and February 2007, Dr. T.P. Tuong (IRRI), made presentations on water-saving technologies at the BRRI’s Department of Water Management. These initiatives led to the testing of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and the following results were attained:
a) AWD reduced the frequency of irrigation without affecting yield. The water saved was used to increase the area irrigated by more than 10%.
b) The cost of irrigation decreased, and the depletion of groundwater declined.
c) The extra cost of weeding was compensated for by savings in fuel costs and from more consistent yields.
In August 2007, Dr. Ruben Lampayan (IRRC Water-Saving WG leader) and scientists of BRRI’s Department of Water Management conducted a training course at BRRI on AWD. As with DSR, AWD technology offers important low-cost efficiencies for the rural poor of Bangladesh. In addition, there are also promising environmental benefits. An escalation of adaptive research on AWD in the rice fields of farmers is planned for Bangladesh.

Grant Singleton (g.singleton) and David Johnson (d.johnson@cgiar.org)

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