Post-flood agriculture: Observations from field visits-I

Bangladesh has experienced yet another severe flood this year. The flood affected 262 upazilas from 39 districts, most of them twice. The second flood receded when there was no further possibility of recovering the loss through replanting of aman paddy. So, the effect of the flood on food production for the affected households would be substantial. According to the Department of Agriculture, the flood has damaged 360 thousand hectares of rice- land completely, and 180 thousand hectares partially. Assuming an average paddy yield of 3.0 t/ha, the total loss of rice production would be about 0.85 million tonnes.
To assess the nature and extent of loss, on-going agricultural activities, and support needed by farmers for agricultural rehabilitation, we made an extensive field visit and consultations with farmers during 4-6 October 2007. The areas visited are Tangail, Sirajganj, Dhunot (Bogra), Gaibandha, Rangpur, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat. Besides observing the landscape and crop conditions on our route, we had a meeting with a group of 20 to 30 farmers in each of the sites. The meeting was organised by local officers of Brac. We thank all the farmers and Brac officials for their help in supporting the field trip.
Farmers reported that they had experienced a different kind of flood in 2007 than in 2004 and 1998. This year flood has occurred two times and thwarted their efforts of recovery. The first flood has damaged their standing crops, seedlings, and nursery, fish, poultry birds and some cattle. Immediately after the first flood, farmers tried to offset their loss by transplanting seedlings of Aman rice wherever feasible, and to cultivate vegetables in some limited areas. However, the second flood submerged the young seedlings for more than a week, which could not survive. Besides the financial constraints, it was too late in the season to recover the loss again through replanting. We observed en route that in the medium to deep flooded areas, the field was either empty or saturated with water.
Farmers reported that instead of keeping the remaining land fallow before the next planting of boro rice or hybrid maize, they could grow mustard and rapeseed, vegetables, chillies and potatoes. Their plan was to intensify the crop production by producing more profitable crops, using improved varieties, increased input use, and better crop management. However in the Tangail and Sirajganj there was still water in the field, making it impossible to grow any non-rice crop. In these areas, farmers have no choice but to wait till the boro season. In these places, unemployment of the landless workers was a serious problem. In Dhunot and Lalmonirhat area, the water had fully receded and the land preparation was going on a full swing.
The impression we got from the field trip is that the problem of flooding is highly localised. The areas affected are mostly located within a few kilometres away on both sides of rivers and canals. The destruction in Sirajganj, Gaibanda and Kurigram was severe partly due to the breeching of the flood embankments. Since majority of the land in these areas are deep flooded, many areas are kept fallow during the Aman season or sown with the traditional low-yielding deep water Aman crop. Single cropped boro rice is the main cropping pattern on such land. So, although the flood afflicted misery on the life of the households and there was substantial loss of income for individual households who went for the transplanted Aman crop, the effect on national rice production would be proportionately lower than the area affected.
The condition of the Aman crop in the non-flooded areas appeared to be good except in some fields where leaves were yellow, a sign of nutrient deficiency that might affect yield. Since the rainfall pattern has been favourable so far, the yield of Aman should be above average this year in the non-flooded areas.
In all of the sites farmers expressed concern regarding the availability of inputs to realise their production plans. The demand for seeds will increase this year because many households who left their homes lost the rice seed they used to keep for planting. The allocation of land to maize will grow substantially this year because of the very high profits they earned last year from the production of hybrid maize, and the continued increase in the price of maize. There is an incentive to grow more boro rice because of the favourable price of paddy. But there is little scope for expansion of boro area, as almost all suitable land had already been brought under cultivation last year. In order to increase production they will allocate more land to hybrid rice which has a 20 percent yield advantage over BRRI Dhan 29, the most popular boro variety. Many, who lost seeds kept at home, would also like to try hybrid rice this year. Therefore, the demand for seed for both hybrid rice and maize would increase substantially. The demand for potato seed is also expected to increase. The seeds for mustard and vegetables are available in the market, but the concern is with the availability of the seeds for hybrid maize, rice and potato. Government and private seed agencies need to take note of this situation.
Framers reported that phosphate and potash fertilisers are available in the market, but they face acute shortage of urea fertiliser. Procuring urea is a big hassle these days, as they had to get certificate from representatives of local governments and local agricultural officials. They often fail to get adequate amount of urea even after spending a number of days to run after the officials. Non-availability of adequate amount of urea is having a negative effect on yield. En route we observed many Aman fields with light green colour of leaf rather than dark green colour, which is a sign of malnutrition of plants.
The farmers prefer the free market system of distribution of fertilisers that prevailed earlier that the present system of distribution through government machinery. They would like the urea to be freely available in the market even if they have to pay higher prices for it. Indeed, many reported that they had to buy fertiliser at Tk 10 to 12 per kg in the black market than the government fixed price of Tk 6 per kg. They reported that the amount of fertiliser they are getting under the present system is about 50 to 70 percent of the requirement.
Irrigation is another major challenge for farmers growing crops in the dry season. Farmers with diesel-operated pumps expressed concern about the rising cost of irrigation. Majority of the farmers purchase water from pump owners. Three modes of payment of water charge are currently in place. These are crop-sharing arrangement, fixed charge on per acre basis, and machine rental system where the farmers directly supply diesel. The fixed water charge has increased to Tk 2000 to 2400 per bigha for boro paddy, from Tk 1200 to 1500 a few years ago. The water charge is paid in instalments and must be paid fully by the time of flowering of the plant. In case of crop-sharing arrangement, currently one-fourth of the produce is paid to the shallow tubewell owner, and the crop is shared in the field at the time of the harvest In the meeting in Tangail, one irrigation pump owner mentioned that she wanted to increase her share for irrigation to 37 percent in the coming boro season since the cost of diesel had increased. Therefore, high cost of diesel may also create problem in the coming boro season. Farmers having electricity operated irrigation facilities demanded uninterrupted electricity supply for crop production.
Farmers reported that they currently face severe fund crisis in order to purchase the necessary inputs and machine rental for land preparation. Farmers reported their cash requirement for cultivation as Tk 4500 per acre for mustard, Tk 45,000 for potato, Tk 7,500 for maize, and Tk 6,000 to 12,000 for boro depending on the mode of payment of the irrigation charge. Therefore, commercial banks and NGOs should provide them loan for crop cultivation. They also mentioned that if Brac provided loan on a weekly instalment basis, as is the prevailing practice, they would not be able to take and repay such loans. They prefer seasonal crop loan this year, which may be recovered in one or two instalments after the harvest of crops.
The flood had a huge tool on the farmers' livelihoods and overall national economy. To offset the flood loss in the upcoming boro season, farmers have their own plans and they deserve support from the government, banks, micro-finance institutions, and public and private agencies dealing with input delivery. We hope that with integrated effort of all stakeholders Bangladesh will successfully able to face the challenges posed by Flood 2007.
Dr Mahabub Hossain is executive director of Brac and Dr Uttam Deb is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)