Journal of Environmental Protection, 2009, 1, 40-49
Published Online November 2009 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep/).
Impact of Irrigation on Food Security in Bangladesh for
the Past Three Decades
M. Wakilur RAHMAN1, Lovely PARVIN2
1Assistant Professor, Department of Rural Sociology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
2PhD Research Fellow, College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, P. R China
Received May 23, 2009; revised June 15, 2009; accepted June 29, 2009
Abstract
Bangladesh has made impressive progress in agriculture sector in the last three decades and has almost be-
come self-sufficient in food grain production. This is a tremendous achievement owing to its small territory
and huge population and this was achieved through agricultural mechanization and modernization. Irrigation
is one of the leading inputs has direct influence to increase yield, food grains production and plays vital role
for ensuring food security in Bangladesh. The present study examined the growth of irrigated area and its
impact on food grain production during last three decades. Time series data were used for the study. Differ-
ent statistical methods such as mean, percentage, linear and exponential growth model were applied for get-
ting meaningful findings. Various technologies have been used for irrigating crops which have contributed to
rapid expansion of irrigated area. The conventional irrigation methods (Low Lift Pump, Dhone, Swing Bas-
ket, Treadle Pump etc.) were replaced by modern methods (i.e Deep Tube Well and Shallow Tube Well). In
addition, surface water irrigation also sharply declined, losing its importance due to lack of new surface irri-
gation project and the ineffectiveness of earlier project. Groundwater covered 77 percent of total irrigated
area and major (62%) extractions occurred through Shallow Tube Wells (STWs). The rapid expansion of
ground water irrigation in respect to STWs irrigation was due to government’s withdrawal on restrictions on
tube well setting rule, encouraging private sector and the cost effectiveness of Chinese engine which have
been affordable to the small and medium farmers. Irrigated area thus, increased by about three times and
cropping intensity also increased from 154 to 176 percent. Boro rice, an irrigated crop, consumed 73 percent
of the total crop irrigation and contributed to a greater extent in total rice production in Bangladesh. Boro
rice alone contributed to 55 percent of total food grain and was also highest (3.44 MT per hectare) compared
to aus rice (1.66 MT per hectare) and aman rice (1.99 MT per hectare) per unit production. Consequently,
the cultivated area of boro rice increased by 1168 to 4068 thousand hectares. The higher productivity of boro
rice has almost helped the nation to meet her food requirements (about 24 Million MT). Boro rice production
was highly correlated (r = .978) with irrigated area. Expansion of one hectare of irrigated area added 3.22
MT of boro rice in Bangladesh. Finally, the study suggested for expansion of irrigated areas (ground water
and surface water), adoption of modern technologies and formulation of farmers’ friendly policy.
Keywords: Irrigation, Food Security, Boro Rice and food Grain Production
1. Introduction
South Asia is a home of 1.5 billion people most of which
live in India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh, the most
densely populated country in the world has been suffer-
ing from food deficiency for a long time. Food scarcity
has remained the major challenge for the government since
liberation (Independence, 1971) as it tries to increase
food grain production to meet the demands of the na-
tion’s growing population. Since the economy of an
agrarian society (like Bangladesh) is dominated by agri-
culture and the livelihoods of the farmers are largely con-
nected with intensive agriculture production. Food grain
occupies the lion’s share of agricultural GDP and it em-

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL. 41
ploys about 60 per cent of total labour force [1]. Hence,
any internal and external threat (social, political, natural
and environmental) to agriculture directly affects food
grain production as well as food security of the country.
Food security is defined as access to enough and safe
food by all people at all times for maintaining an active
and healthy life. Aggregate domestic production and per
capita availability of food grains increased in the country
over the past decades. But the country still depends on
import of food grains (in 2007-08 imported 11.5 percent
of total availability) [2]. Therefore, it is timely demand to
explore the domestic potentiality and to increase produc-
tion for attaining the Millennium Development Goal
(MDG goal is to reduce the extreme poverty to half by
2015 ensuring food as basic requirements).
Rice is staple food of Bangladeshi people and it con-
stituted about 90% of the total food grain production [3].
Of the three types of rice aus1, aman2 and boro3, the
Boro rice alone contributed the highest share of total rice
production since 1998-99 to date [4]. Therefore, increase
of Boro rice production would be a significant possible
way to overcome food deficiency in the country. Boro
rice is produced in Rabi season (October to March) and it
grows totally under irrigated condition. Thus, develop-
ment of irrigation availability is playing a vital role in
this regard.
There are two major sources of irrigation in Bangla-
desh-surface and ground water. Low Lift pump (LLP),
Canal and Traditional (Dhone and Swing basket) are
used as a means of technology for surface water irriga-
tion while Deep Tube Wells (DTW)4, Shallow Tube
Wells (STW)5 and Hand Tube wells are used for ground
water irrigation. Before70s, irrigation was mainly de-
pendent on surface sources and in the mid-seventies
government emphasised on groundwater irrigation with
DTW projects. But government soon shifted to STW
because of it’s suitability to socio-economic status of the
farmers (less investment cost, small land holdings, avai-
lability in the market, withdrawing restriction on import
and STWs spacing) and STWs enclosed 62 per cent of
total irrigated area [5]. The total irrigation coverage was
increased 1726 to 5898 thousand hectare within the pe-
riod of 1981-82 to 2006-07 (342 per cent) whereas irri-
gation potential is estimated at 7,550 thousand hectares
[6]. There is still possibility to expand 28 percent of irri-
gated area according to irrigation potentiality. At present
groundwater contributes to 77 percent of total irrigated
area in Bangladesh [5].
About 80 percent of groundwater was used for crop
production in which Boro paddy consumed 73 percent of
total irrigation [7]. Hence, Boro rice production is in-
creasing at about 1% annually and contributes to 55% of
the total rice production [8]. The application of ground-
water irrigation increased with the introduction of High
Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds to meet the food require-
ments of a growing population [9]. In contrast the yield
potential of the existing HYV rice is more than 4 MT/ha.,
whereas the average yield realized by the majority of
farmers is less than 3.0 MT/ha [2]. Thus, on farm re-
search is important to reduce the production gap. In addi-
tion groundwater-based irrigation economy is crucial for
increasing domestic production, attaining food security
and lifting millions of poor farmers out of poverty.
Hence, this paper intends to acquire an integrated under-
standing of the importance of irrigation, its impacts on
food grain production and rural livelihoods and also the
role of existing policy and institutional guidance.
2. Methodology
The present paper is mainly based on secondary sources
of information. Data were collected from Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in the period of 1980-81 to
2006-07. Moreover, Bangladesh Agricultural Develop-
ment Corporation (BADC), published articles, Economic
Review, and Fifth Five Year Plan was also taken as a
crucial source of data. After collecting necessary (time
series) data, they were analysed using tabular, graphical
and econometric techniques. Microsoft Excel and SPSS
program was applied for analysing data in a meaningful
way. Both linear and exponential equations were used for
representing time series data. The equations are as fol-
lows-
Ye = a +bt (1)
and
Ye = Aebt, (2)
after taking log the equation is- log Ye = log A + bt
Ye = dependent variables
a= intercept
b= Co-efficient
t= time series
3. Development of Irrigation Technologies
and Cropping Intensity
At the initial stage of irrigation development, the main
emphasis was on low lift pump for extracting surface
water and later on, Bangladesh Agricultural Develop-
ment Corporation (BADC) initiated capital-intensive
methods for DTW installation in Bangladesh and pro-
vided subsidized well components (pumps, drilling equi-
1,2Mostly rain fed rice, 3Irrigated rice, 4The discharge capacity of deep
tube wells are about 50 lt/sec having greater depths (upto 100-120m)
and larger diameter compared to shallow wells. 5Shallow Tube wells
are small irrigation wells having discharge capacities of 12-15 lt/sec
with maximum depths of 40-60m and well diameter of 100-150mm.

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL. 42
pment, etc.) for rapid expansion of larger public groun-
dwater irrigation schemes (1960s started from Thakur-
goan area, north-western part of Bangladesh). Privatiza-
tion and expansion of minor irrigation and withdrawal of
Government subsidy in irrigation equipment lead to tre-
mendous development of STWs during last two decades
[10]. The percentage contribution of different irrigation
technologies is shown in Table 1. Table 1 depicts that the
uses of surface irrigation drastically reduced while grou-
ndwater irrigation technologies increased significantly.
Modern irrigation mainly consists of DTW and STW
which have almost entirely replaced the pioneer Low Lift
Pump (LLPs) and at the same time DTWs is gradually
loosing its application as it is economically and socially
inappropriate [11]. The share of surface water irrigation
technologies (LLP) reduced by 41 to 16 percent of total
irrigated area during 1981-82 to 2006-07. Again the trad-
itional (i.e dhone, swing basket etc) and canal irrigation
coverage sharply declined to about 10 percent (canal 3
percent and traditional 7 percent). On the other hand, gr-
ound water irrigation increased significantly particularly
due to rapid expansion of STWs technologies. In early
90s the STW and DTW irrigation covered 37 and 24 per-
cent of total irrigated area respectively. Within two dec-
ades, STWs occupied 62 percent of total irrigated area
while DTW irrigation coverage was only 14 percent.
This indicated that small farmers’ share on STW owner-
ship has increased significantly over the years in Bang-
ladesh because of less investment cost, easy installation,
easy maintenance and can be shared among small groups
of farmers, convenient for small landholding owners and
withdrawal of import restrictions [12]. It appears from
Table 1 that the percentage of irrigated area increased over
time. In 1981-82 total irrigated area was 16 percent
whereas in 2006-07 it observed 56 of total cultivated area.
Table 1. Percentage of irrigated area by various technologies in Bangladesh.
Year DTW STW LPPCanal TraditionalOthersTotal irrigated area
(‘000 ) hectare
Total cultivated area
(‘000 ha.)
Percentages of
irrigated area
Cropping
intensity
1981-82 15.7* 40.89.5 25.6 8.4 1726 10491 16 153.70
1985-86 45.9* 29.07.8 12.1 5.2 2098 10447 20 154.47
1991-92 20.3 37.4 22.35.7 13.1 1.2 3028 10249 32 171.81
1995-96 19.1 46.3 19.14.3 10.3 1 3554 9946 36 173.18
2001-02 14.74 56.39 16.713.54 7.04 0.6 4598 10665 43 176.94
2004-05 14.24 59.60 15.93- 9.70 0.535037 10373 49 176.85
2005-06 14.29 61.77 15.31- 7.72 0.395604 10534 53 175.96
2006-07 13.82 61.80 16.27- 7.12 0.375898 10579 56 176.07
* Indicates both STW and DTW percentages
Table 2. Shows the rice requirements and availability in domestic sources and also external sources during 1991-92 to
2006-07.
Production (‘000MT)
Year Aus Aman Boro
Total rice production/
availability (‘000MT)
Total requirement
(‘000 MT) Gap Food availability gm/cap/day
External sources aid
+ import (‘000MT)
1991-92 2179 9269 6804 18252 18710 -458454 -
1992-93 2075 9680 6586 18341 19040 -699445 1183
1993-94 1850 9419 6772 18041 19370 -1329440 966
1994-95 1791 8504 6538 16833 19700 -2867428 2568
1995-96 1676 8790 7221 17687 20030 -2343439 2427
1996-97 1871 9552 7460 18883 20360 -1477430 967
1997-98 1875 8850 8137 18862 20690 -1828455 1951
1998-99 1617 7736 1055219905 21040 -1135522 5491
1999-00 1734 10306 1102723067 21380 1687514 2104
2000-01 1916 11249 1192125086 21510 3575545 1554
2001-02 1808 10726 1176624300 21790 2510521 1798
2002-03 1850 11115 1222225187 22090 3097564 3220
2003-04 1832 11520 1283826190 22380 3810554 2788
2004-05 1500 9819 1383725156 22680 2476539 3374
2005-06 1745 10810 1397526530 23010 3520534 2459
2006-07 1512 10841 1496527318 23250 4068540 1440

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL.
43
The cropping intensity is determined as the ratio of
total cropped area of multiple crops within a year to net
cultivated area, which is expressed in terms of percent-
age. Farmers typically grow one or two crops per year
and leave their lands fallow for rest of the time. The
cropping intensity increased by 154 to 176 percent
within the period of 1981-82 to 2006-07 (Table 1), while
in some regions it was about 200 percent (Bogra and
Comilla district). The rapid boost of cropping intensity
was possible due to expansion of irrigated area and de-
velopment of irrigation technologies in Bangladesh.
4. Food Requirements and Availability
It is observed that from 1991-92 towards 1998-99 there
were deficit in rice production and the deficit ranged
from 458 to 2867 thousand metric tons.
Later, the country reached to a marginally self-suffi-
cient in rice production and it exceeded the country’s
total requirement of about 1600 to 4000 thousand metric
tons. In reality the country with this small amount of
surplus production is in a vulnerable situation as it is
always threatened by frequent disasters like drought,
flood, cyclone and sidr etc, which causes damage to the
country’s valued rice crops almost every year [1]. As a
result, the government has to seek for foreign aid and
import every year to make food reserve as buffer stock
(Table 2). The amount of import and foreign aid varies
according to extent of natural calamity and domestic
production. The external sources of food was highest
(5491 thousand MT) in 1998-99 as country was severely
affected by flood. Boro rice usually, is less affected by
natural disaster and consequently occupied largest share
(55 percent in 2006-07) of total rice production. More-
over, 98 percent of boro rice is HYV and produced under
irrigated condition.
5. Trends of Rice Production in Bangladesh
Within the crop sub-sector, food grains particularly the
rice dominates in respect to both cropped area and pro-
duction [13]. The following Figure 1 shows the trend of
rice production in Bangladesh during 1980-81 to
2005-06. The production of aus rice was decreased while
aman and boro rice was increased over the period of
1981–82 to 2005–06. Again, the fluctuation of aman rice
as well as aus rice production was common due to the
above named disasters and natural calamities. In 1988-89,
1998-99 and 2004–05 production year, aman rice pro-
duction was drastically fall because of devastating flood
all over the country (Figure 1). In such circumstances,
people rely on boro rice production and they provide full
efforts to overcome the crisis. Boro rice compensated the
deficits because of its less reliant on nature and varietal
improvement. Moreover, effective implementation of
rehabilitation programs by the government and timely
supply of inputs including irrigation equipments was also
another reason of success. The R2 value was higher for
boro rice production than aman rice production.
y = 460.22x + 1272.5
R
2
= 0.9462
y = 143.52x + 7099.6
R
2
= 0.6725
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
1980-81
1981-82
1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
Year
Production ('000 MT)
Aus production
Aman production
Boro production
Linear (Boro production)
Linear (Aman production)
Figure 1. Trend of aus, aman and boro rice production in Bangladesh.

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL. 44
y = -18.396x + 5960.1
R
2
= 0.3105
y = 121.35x + 1022.1
R
2
= 0.9657
y = -96.714x + 3329.1
R
2
= 0.944
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
1980-81
1981-82
1982-83
1983-84
1984-85
1985-86
1986-87
1987-88
1988-89
1989-90
1990-91
1991-92
1992-93
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
Year
Area ('000 hectare)
Aus area
Aman area
Boro area
Linear (Aman area )
Linear (Boro area)
Linear (Aus area )
Figure 2. Trend of aus, aman and boro cultivated area in Bangladesh.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
Year
Share (percentage)
Share of ausShare of amanShare of boro
Figure 3. Percentage of aus, aman and boro production of total rice production in Bangladesh.

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL.
45
6. Trend of Rice Cultivated Area in
Bangladesh
At present, rice covers 75 percent of total cultivable land
in Bangladesh [5]. Figure 2 depicts the trend of different
rice cultivated area during 1980-81 to 2005-06. It is in-
teresting that most of aus rice cultivated areas were oc-
cupied by boro rice while aman cultivated area slightly
declined over the time. It might be the reason of rela-
tively less varietal improvement of aus and aman rice
than boro rice and seasonal calamity. In the year of
1980-81 the boro cultivated area was 1161 thousand
hectares and it was increased by 4068 thousand hectares
after three decades of irrigation development while aus
rice production area decreased by 3113 to 1035 thousand
hectares within this period of time. On the other hand,
aman cultivated area declined but still its occupied
higher area than others. The fluctuation of aman culti-
vated area was also observed particularly in the natural
disadvantaged years.
7. Contribution of Boro Rice to Total Rice
Production
Boro rice is relatively free from weather hazard as it is
grows in winter season. As a result, quick adoption of
boro rice by the farmers’ remarkably increased which
made a substantial contribution to food grain production
as well as agricultural development as a whole in Bang-
ladesh [14]. The share of total rice production in differ-
ent types of rice for the period of 1980-81 to 2005-06 is
shown in Figure 3. At the initial stage of irrigation tech-
nology development, Boro rice contribution was lowest
among different seasonal rice (aus and aman) but it is
occupying the highest position since 1998-99 to date. In
1980-81 aman rice dominated and contributed to 57 per-
cent of total rice production while aus and boro rice con-
tribution was only 24 and 19 percent respectively. Figure
3 show that boro rice contribution to total rice production
was in an increasing trend and increased by 55 percent in
2004-05 from 19 percent in 1980-81. Meanwhile aus rice
contribution decreased at a greater length which could be
due to traditional cultivation method, less varietal im-
provement and its replacement by boro rice.
8. Per Hectare Yield of Different Seasonal
Rice
The average rice yield of Bangladesh is lower than in
Asian countries like India, China [7]. Figure 4 shows per
hectare yield of aus, aman and boro rice during 1980-81
to 2005-06. However, it was noted that all kind of rice
yield was in an increasing trend and the gap between aus
and aman rice yield was more or less similar. But the
boro rice yield was about two and three times higher
than aman and aus rice respectively. The major reason
behind such differences observed was because boro rice
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
Year
Yield per hectare ('000 MT)
Yield aus
Yield aman
Yield boro
Linear (Yield boro)
Linear (Yield aman)
Linear (Yield aus)
Figure 4. Per hectare yield of aus, aman and boro during 1980-81 to 2005-06 in Bangladesh.

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL. 46
Map 1. Percentages of irrigation in different region of Bangladesh.

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL.
47
varieties (97 percent) were High Yielding Variety (HYV)
while it was less common for aus and aman rice. Figure
4 represent that though per hectare production increased
till (2005-06), it did not exceed 2 MT/ha. for aus and
aman rice yield whereas boro rice yield was about 2
MT/ha. in 1980-81 (the initial stage of groundwater irri-
gation) its yield increased by 65 percent (2.23 MT/ha. in
1980-81 and 3.44 MT/ha. in 2005-06) during last three
decades.
9. Irrigation Coverage in Different Region
Irrigation coverage is not equally distributed all over the
country because of different topography, availability of
modern irrigation technology and socio-economic status
of farmers. Map 1 shows the percentages of irrigation
coverage in different region of Bangladesh in the pro-
duction year of 2007-08. Four colours used to indicate
the extent of irrigated area in different regions. It is
observed that percentage of irrigated area was highest
(green colour, 100-75 percent) which constituted 11 dis-
tricts out of 64 districts and mostly situated in the north
and north-western part of the country. There were also
19 districts moderately irrigated (75-50 percent men-
tioned as sky colour) composing upper middle and mid
eastern part of the country. Another 19 districts were
50-25 percent under irrigated condition constituted in the
middle and lower part of the country. Remaining 15 dis-
tricts mostly situated in the hilly and coastal belt of the
country had less irrigation coverage (below 25 percent).
In recent time government has taken some initiative to
expand irrigated area in the coastal belt by protecting
coastal water resources [15].
10. Relationship of Different Parameters
10.1. Area and Production
Following Table 3 shows the relationship between culti-
vated area and production of different rice in Bangla-
desh.
It can be observed from table 3 that boro rice produc-
tion was highly correlated (r=0.986) with cultivated area
while aman rice production was negatively related. Aus
rice production was also statistically significant at 1 per-
cent level with cultivated area at a value of 0.703 which
indicated strong correlation. The R2 value of linear model
was .943, .012 and .972 for aus, aman and boro respec-
tively which implied that independent variables (culti-
vated area) could explain 94, 1 and 97 percent of de-
pendent variable (production) of au s, am an and boro rice
respectively. More or less similar results also appeared in
exponential growth model.
10.2. Irrigated Area and Boro Rice Production
Boro rice is grown on fully irrigated condition therefore,
only relationship between boro rice production and irri-
gated area has been examined. The summary of the re-
sults are shown in Table 4. The result shows that the in-
crease of one hectare irrigated area added 3.22 MT rice
considering boro rice production with irrigated area in
Bangladesh. In addition R2 value explained about 96
percent of dependent variable (boro rice production) by
the independent variable (total irrigated area). Moreover,
Boro rice production was strongly correlated (r=.986)
with total irrigated area in Bangladesh.
Table 3. Relationship between cultivated area and production of rice during 1980-81 to 2005-06.
Linear model Exponential model
Type
of rice R2 Intercept
(a)
Coefficient
(b) t R2 Intercept (a)
Coefficient
(b) t
Pearson
Correlation (r)
Aus .943 752.71 .7548 399.45**.938 1149.48.0003 365.33** .703**
Aman .012 5897.70 -.0206 .596 .008 5865.00-3.E-06 .661 -.811**
Boro .972 -2561 3.7764 818.16**.993 1579 .0005 3406** .986**
** indicates as 1 percent significant level (2 -tailed)
Table 4. Relationship between irrigated area and boro rice production during 1980–81 to 2005-06.
Linear model Exponential model
Type
of Rice R2 Intercept
(a)
Coefficient
(b) t R2 Intercept (a)
Coefficient
(b) t
Pearson
correlation (r)
Boro rice .957 -3225.73.220 492.01** .975 1490.70.0005 870** .978**
** indicates as 1 percent significant level (2 -tailed)

M. W. RAHMAN ET AL. 48
11. Conclusion and Suggestion for Policy
Implication
Irrigation is one of the key factors making the country
self-sufficient in food grain production and contributes
greatly towards agriculture GDP (Gross Domestic Pro-
duction). Irrigation particularly ground water irrigation
plays an important role for alleviating rural poverty in
Bangladesh. It materialized that irrigation technologies
are developing and small and medium farmers are in-
volved more in the production process which enhanced
their household food security in particular and national
food security in general. From findings it appears that
ground water irrigation has been given more emphasis
from government as well as individual entrepreneur point
of view though National Water Policy (NWPo) has high-
lighted the conjunctive use of surface and ground water
[16]. Further more NWPo suggested to ensure the avail-
ability of water to all elements of society (poor, unprivi-
leged), accelerating public and private water delivery
system encompassing water right, water pricing, efficient
water management considering economic efficiency,
environmental degradation and climate change. There-
fore, it should be given similar or more attention for the
development of surface water irrigation in Bangladesh.
The average yield of rice is low especially for aus and
aman rice as compared to Asian countries (India and
China) therefore it is of urgent need to increase govern-
ment investment in research for varietal improvement
and on farm water management. Regarding varietal im-
provement, only 53 percent land was under HYV rice in
case of aus cultivated area and it was 62 percent for
aman rice in 2006-07. On the other hand HYV occupied
97 percent of boro rice cultivated area in the same year.
Thus, there is a greater chance for varietal improvement
to increase per unit production.
Increasing one hectare of irrigated area added 3.22 MT
boro rice production therefore it is highly recommended
for expansion of remaining land (28 percent) under irri-
gated condition for achieving country food requirements.
However, there is a concern of arsenic contamination and
declining water level due to ground water extraction over
20-30 years [17]. Boro rice production should be empha-
sized due to its less dependence on natural calamity, high
varietal improvement (97 percent), and higher per unit
production as compared to other seasonal rice (aus and,
aman).
Existing institutions should be strengthened as well as
capacity building for sustainable development and man-
agement of ground water and surface water irrigation due
recent concerns about salinity, declining water level,
ground water arsenic contamination, absence of irriga-
tion pricing rules and regulations and power crisis etc.
[18].Hence, formulation of “Groundwater and Surface
water Act” is necessary for ensuring farmers benefit and
long-run sustainability of natural resources. Irrigation has
direct influence towards farmer’s socio-economic status
therefore; further study could investigate the implication
of irrigation on poverty alleviation in rural Bangladesh.
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