LOW COVERAGE OF IRRIGATION BY PUMPS IN BANGALDESH: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country. About 7.5 million acres of land are irrigated which comprise about 20 per cent of the total cultivable land. The average productivity of rice at present is slightly above a half ton per acre. It is generally accepted that to increase the productivity of rice and other crops e.g. wheat and vegetables, irrigation facilities require to be extended with effective operational measures and management system. Irrigation through Deep tube well, Shallow tube well and Low-lift pumps constitute a major share (65 percent). In the past, capacity utilization of pumps and tube wells could not be achieved due to a number of problems, causing low coverage of irrigation. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the existing irrigation system and find out the factors responsible for low coverage by pumps. It is observed that the low coverage and poor performance of the irrigation projects are due to technological inefficiency, socio -economic constraints and lack of guidance by responsible authorities. A number of government and semi-government agencies are involved in the whole process but are not well coordinated among them. The government of Bangladesh has adopted a number of good policies to improve the irrigation method. These, however, have not  been resulted any substantial improvement in the system due to a wide gap between national and local level administrat ion. Corruptions at the filed level associated with lack of monitoring facilities have been an obstacle to achieve the expected result. It is therefore assumed that coordination among the various government and semi-government agencies responsible for irrigation activities is necessary to establish and effective linkage between the national and local bodies.