Cereal Systems Initiative for South

Asia

Hub Characterization Report: Gazipur Hub (Bangladesh)

Hub Communication Platform Objective: 1 (Activity: 1.3)

Neelam Chaudhary Lori Wichhart John Corbett

Hub Communication Platform www.awhere.com/csisa

Introduction The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) provides an overall strategy and umbrella for contributing new science and technologies to short- and long-term cereal production growth in South Asia’s most important grain baskets. The key technology dissemination CSISA activities are focused through nine hubs (Figure 1) across South Asia including Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, representing the intensive cereal production systems. The cereal production system constraints are complex in nature and require site specific management solutions. Through a series of workshops, discussions and literature review, the production system constraints and their appropriate entry points were identified by the objective 1 /CSISA team. The attributes of these constraints and probable entry points have been prioritized by the respective hub team. So based on the data provided by hub managers the hubs have been characterized for the constraints along with potential solutions relevant to domain area using the aWhere desktop. The current report includes the hub characterization of the Gazipur hub (#12) in Bangladesh. The data (Figure 3, 5, 6) for hub characterization have been provided by Gazipur hub team and the source of all other data (Figure 4, 7-14) is Deputy Directors Agriculture Extension, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of Bangladesh. The report includes

Hub domain area Hub Technical working group Total cropped area Area, production & yield of rice, wheat and maize Primary and secondary cropping systems Land holding in different districts Irrigated and rainfed area Types of irrigation sources in different districts Average fertilizer use in different districts Different types of fertilizers used in different districts

Figure 1: CSISA Hub Domain Area

Hub Domain Area There are six divisions of Bangladesh namely Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna,

Rajshahi and Stylhet and Gazipur hub covers eight districts namely Gazipur, Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Manikganj, Tangail, Narayanganj, Kishoreganj and Narsingdi as shown in the figure 2.

Technical Working Group (TWG) The TWG have representatives of the local government, universities, NGOs and private sector. Typically the TWG’s include representatives from district agric. office, government research instts/ SAUs in hub domain, NGOs, input suppliers, local extension network, mass media, farmers’ association/ cooperative and CSISA- Research & Extension team. TWG members synthesize the local knowledge for designing a regional Cereal Knowledge Bank, ensure quality control of the content, and foster its widespread use in capacity building for extension by all partners. It also facilitates the process to reach consensus on recommendations for technologies and farm services. Furthermore, they enthuse the national partners in delivery of locally appropriate technologies, information and trainings to farmers. At Gazipur hub, the TWG is represented by 16 members from public-private sector representing five districts: Mymensingh, Gazipur, Tangail, Jamalpur and Narayanganj. The names and place of representatives have been given in the figure 3 below.

Figure 2: Gazipur Hub Domain Area

Land holding The farmers based on their land holding are categorized as marginal, small, medium and large farmers. In all the districts marginal and small farmers cover almost 80-90%, whereas large farmers are very less (Figure 4). So it suggests that technologies should be suitable for the small farmers in the Gazipur hub domain area.

Figure 4: District-wise Percent of farmers under different categories at Gazipur Hub domain

Figure 3: TWG partnership at Gazipur Hub

Cropping Systems in Gazipur Hub Hub domain area has been characterized based on the primary and secondary cropping systems in each districts, which will help to prioritize the technology dissemination area and cropping system. Primary Cropping Systems The primary cropping systems vary in different districts of the hub domain area (Figure 5). Mymensingh, Tangail, Gazipur and Narayanganj: Boro – Fallow - T. Aman Narsingdi: Vegetable - Vegetable - T. Aman Kishoreganj: Boro -T. Aus - T. Aman Manikganj: Mustard –Boro -T. Aman Jamalpur: Boro -T. Aus/ Fallow - T.Aman Secondary Cropping Systems Similarly, Secondary cropping pattern of all the districts vary (Figure 6). Mymensingh and Kishoreganj: Vegetable – Vegetable - T. Aman Jamalpur: Mustard – Boro - T. Aman Tangail: Boro – Fallow - Fallow Narayanganj, Gazipur, Narsingdi and Manikganj: Mustard/ Wheat - T. Aus - T. Aman; Boro -T. Aus - T. Aman; Vegetable -T. Aus - T. Aman; Mustard – Boro - Fallow

Boro-T.Aus/ Fallow-T.Aman

Boro-Fallow-T. Aman

Vegetable-Vegetable-T.Aman

Mustard- Boro-T.aman

Boro-T.Aus-T.Aman

Figure 5: District-wise Primary Cropping System at Gazipur Hub

Boro-T.Aus-T.AmanMustard- Boro-T.AmanVegetable-Vegetable-T.AmanMustard-Boro-Fallow

Boro-Fallow-Fallow

Mustard/Wheat-T.Aus-T.AmanVegetable-T.Aus-T.Aman

Total Cropped, Irrigated and Rainfed Area The total cropped area in different districts ranged from 95439 to 473850 ha in the Gazipur hub domain region. Mymensingh had the largest cropped area of 47380 ha followed by Jamalpur and Kishoreganj districts and least in Narayanganj and Narsingdi districts (Figure 7).

The conservation agriculture based RCTs are site- and crop-specific. Most of these technologies have been tested in the irrigated and intensive cereal based systems of Indo-gangetic plains (IGP). In the Gazipur hub domain area, except Mymensingh district, the percent irrigated area is more than the rainfed area. This will help the hub team to prioritize the technologies for the irrigated and rainfed areas.

Figure 6: District-wise Secondary Cropping System at Gazipur Hub

Figure 7: Total Cropped Area (ha) of Gazipur Hub domain

Figure 10: District-wise Area, Production and yield of Rice (Aus, B.Aman, Boro, T.Aman), Wheat and Maize of Gazipur Hub

Figure 9: District-wise percent rainfed area in Gazipur Hub

Figure 8: District-wise percent irrigated area in Gazipur Hub

Area, Production and yield of Rice (Aus, B. Aman, Boro, T. Aman), Wheat and Maize The boro rice is the predominant crop in all districts of Gazipur Hub however; the acreage varies from 32,000 to 250,000 ha. Boro rice is the preferred crop due to comparatively high productivity levels (5.4 to 6.6 t/ha). Among different districts of Gazipur hub, maximum acreage under boro rice lies in Mymensingh but the maximum productivity is in Manikganj. The maize acreage is less (90- 5000 ha) in all the districts but the productivity levels are high (4.5- 6.5 t/ha) that indicates that maize can act potential driver for crop diversification. The wheat acreage in different districts is less than 10,000 ha/ district mainly due to low productivity (1.9 to 2.6 t/ha) (Figure 10). Types of Irrigation Sources In Gazipur hub domain area mainly three types of pumps are being used for irrigation i.e. deep tubewell in areas of deep water table, shallow tubewell in areas of low water table and low lift pumps. In hub domain the shallow tube well pumps are prevalent varying from 80% to 95% in different districts (Figure 11) and similarly maximum area of boro rice is irrigated by shallow tubewell (Figure 12).

Figure 11: Number of different types of pumps used at Gazipur Hub

Fertilizer consumption Chemical fertilizers are important agricultural input. Based on the secondary sales data of fertilizer, maximum consumption is in Mymensingh district which is a rainfed area (Figure 13). It can help manager to better prioritize the technologies dissemination work-plan. Eight different types of chemical fertiliser’s sources are being used in different districts of Gazipur hub. But still the major source is urea, which is more than 50% as compared to other chemicals (Figure 14).

Figure 13: District-wise average fertiliser use (MT) in Gazipur Hub

Figure 12: Boro rice area (ha) irrigated by different types of pumps

The constraints and entry points depicted in the present report may help the hub team in decision making for wider and better dissemination of the conservation agriculture based resource conserving technologies. Mymensingh district has the maximum fertilizer use denoting lower fertilizer use efficiency. On the basis of land holding, the numbers of the small and marginal farmers are much higher than the large farmers in the hub domain area. Therefore, we need to promote the technologies and machinery suitable to small and marginal farmers so that maximum adoption and outputs can be harnessed.

Figure 14: District-wise different types of fertilisers used (MT) in Gazipur Hub