By Dr Md Aynal Haque

RAJSHAHI, June 17, 2023 (BSS) - Instead of depending on only Boro rice,
large-scale promotion of diversified crops farming can be the crucial means
of ensuring water security in the drought-prone Barind area.
 
The area consisting of partial parts of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj
districts is drought-prone due to its geographic location but the farmers
used to cultivate diversified crops to cope with the water-stressed condition
since the immemorial time.

Experts and development workers unanimously viewed that the grassroots
farmers also meet up their water demands from the natural water bodies like
rivers, canals and ponds.

Niamul Bari, professor of Department of Civil Engineering in Rajshahi
University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), said the natural surface
water resources are facing an endangered condition at present due to
multifarious reasons including prolonged rainless situation.
 
In this situation, farmers have become dependent on groundwater for
irrigating the farming fields, especially the Irri-Boro paddy which is the
highly irrigation-consumed crop.
 
Prof Bari, however, opined that water is being adjudged as one of the vital
sources in the transformation process of development of the present barind
area besides making it green during the last couple of decades.
 
Lifting of underground water must be reduced to the minimum as the future of
agriculture depends on availability of water amid a formidable threat of
climate change when there is an alternative to keeping food production rate
increasing.
 
He said there should be nature-based solutions for water challenges in the
region. Emphasis should be laid on the need for integrated solutions in water
development plans considering political, social and local realities.
 
Apart from this, emphasis should be given to the cultivation of drought-
tolerant crops instead of depending on only Irri-Boro farming in the area to
lessen the gradually mounting pressure on underground water.
 
Large-scale promotion of less-water consuming indigenous crops could be the
effective means of mitigating water-stress conditions in the drought-prone
Barind area.
 
Narrating the sufferings caused by the abnormal lowering of groundwater
National Agriculture Award Winning Farmer Nur Muhammad mentioned that there
are enormous scopes of increasing the acreage of various low-water consuming
crops like wheat, maize, lentil, burley, sesame and chickpea in the Barind
tract.
 
He mentioned that the ongoing climate change at alarming rates has severely
affected indigenous crops farming and its diversity creating a real threat to
food production.
 
There is no alternative to encourage the farmers to promote various cereal
crops and vegetables instead of only Irri-Boro paddy on the dried land to
face the water stress condition as its groundwater table has gradually been
declining.
 
Muhammad said legitimate rights of the farmers and others concerned should be
protected for encouraging them towards boosting agricultural productions to
meet up its gradually mounting demands.
 
Shahidul Islam, coordinator (Barind Region) of Bangladesh Resource Centre for
Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), said utmost emphasis should be given on
practicing sustainable agriculture to attain the sustainable development
besides achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
 
Simultaneously, species of diversified crops needs to be protected which is
the precondition to sustainable development.
 
Ensuring water security is very important to ensure food security and
biodiversity and sustainable culture.
 
Existing adverse impacts of climate change and other natural catastrophes are
posing a serious threat to biodiversity, health security and water security
in the Barind area.
 
Meanwhile, more than 12.58 lakh community people of 2.66 lakh households are
being motivated and encouraged towards promotion of less-water consuming
crops to reduce the pressure on underground water under the 'Integrated Water
Resource Management (IWRM)' project.
 
The project is being implemented by DASCOH Foundation in around 1,280
drought-hit villages under 39 union parishads and three municipalities of
eight upazilas in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts supported
by Switzerland since 2014, said Akramul Haque, chief executive officer of
DASCOH Foundation.
 
The existing adverse impact of climate change is putting local people into
trouble since the hand-driven tube-wells are not functioning here in the dry
season, he added.