Meeting Minutes of Bi-Monthly Meeting June 11- Final

7/31/2019 Meeting Minutes of Bi-Monthly Meeting June 11- Final

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Meeting minutes, 7th Bi-monthly meeting, 7 June, 2012 Page 1

DRAFT Minutes of 7th

Bi-monthly Coordination Meeting of GBDC

Venue: Ganges Office Room, the WorldFish Center, Banani, Dhaka. 11 June 2012

Participants:

1. Manoranjan Mondal, IRRI

2. Zahirul Hauque, IWM

3. Sirajul Islam, BRAC

4. Nasim Al Azad, IWM

5. Alamgir Hossain, IWM

6. Emdad Hossain WFC

7. Salma sultana WFC

8. Pamela George WFC

9. Liz Humphreys, IRRI (through skype)

10. Aditi Mukherji, IWMI, (through skype)

11. Andy Nelson, IRRI, (through skype)

12. Md. Kamrul Islam WFC (observer)

1) Discussion on the decisions of last Bi-monthly meeting and acceptance of agendaPamela opened the meeting, thanking all for their attendance. The 6

thBi-monthly meeting minutes was

approved and the agenda adopted. Apologies were accepted from Moqbul xxxxxxx, of IWM who was

unable to attend.

2) Project progress to dateIRRI

Ganges 1:Andy has recruited Bangladesh focal person Dr. Parvesh Kumar to represent G1 in

the basin. He will be based in IRRI office Dhaka and will join on 14th

June. He is busy ordering remote

sensoring images to start high resolution mapping. Surveys on soil salinity to provide a base line are

ongoing and mapping will commence soon. The IRRI team is working with IWM in all 3 polders.

IRRI Ganges 2: Manoranjan presented a power point presentation on G2 activity progress.

Progress summaries are below-

Aman (June 2011) -Boro-Aus (43/2/F) Aman-Rabi-Aus (43/2/F)

Completed Aman and Rabi crops Aus rice (2012) is at vegetative stage in the field

Aman-Rabi-Fallow (Polder 30) Completed Aman and Rabi, some rabi crops yet to harvest

Aman-Auqaculture (Polder 3) Aquaculture-Aquaculture (Polder 3)

Aquaculture trials on-going in polder 3
http://ganges-bdc.wikispaces.com/


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Shrimp harvest started in mid-May Tilapia harvest will start end of June

Other species during July-October

Homestead Production Systems

A survey of >1200 randomly selected HHs was conducted across 3 polders (polder: 3, 30, 43/2F)in SW Bangladesh during January-May.

Data analysis 80% completed and report writing on progress, first draft by end of June.Replicated Cropping System Experiment (PhD Research)

2 students will be enrolled at PSTU and 1 at BAU Scholarship will be provided by CPWF-CSISA All 3 students accepted the offer

1 student will work on Aus-Aman-Boro 2 students will work on Aus-Aman-Rabi 1 left as he has accepted a position at BARI Offer for the next candidate is under process, he will work on Aus-Aman-Rabi pattern at

PSTU

An MOU is being developed between IRRI and PSTUStudy on improved water management

Objective of this study is to work in a pilot watershed area to demonstrate the benefits of

improved water management at the community level

to adopt improved crop and crop management practices For safe harvest of the dry season crops to achieve higher land and water productivity.

Progress of the study

Completed survey of 53 farmers within and 15 farmers outside watershed on crop and watermanagement

Agreement reached with the watershed farmers, local water users association and publicrepresentatives regarding management of the sluice gate to allow timely drainage and shut

down to prevent saline water intrusion Location of internal drains and outlets identified Design of drainage outlet completed, established in June STRASA provided HYV rice seeds for Aman season 2012, to be distributed in the last week of

June

Farmers will be trained in June on Aman rice cultivation


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CSISA-CIMMYT agreed to set-up trials within the pilot improved water management area onimproved (including zero tillage) rabi crops cultivation

Manoranjan advised that Polder 30 was problematic for irrigation as the salinity is very high,

leading to a reliance on rainwater for the trials. The trials will be relocated where there is better

water control, which is near to a community water management committee (that G3 areworking with?). Activities on this site are also linked to G4s work on fresh water storage

capacity (recommendations on dredging?) Andy acknowledged the usefulness of the

presentation with detail information, noting that it would be useful for external information

needs. Zahir asked for clarity on how G2 is using the vast information produced by G1 and G4

and was advised by Manoranjan that the information feeds into developing the cropping

systems. Emdad requested the list of PVS farmer in the selected polders, which Manoranjan

undertook to provide.

Action: Manoranjan to provide the list of PVS farmers to Emdad as soon as available.

IWMI Ganges 3:Aditi shared the following summary of activities:

Outputs produced and activities completed/ongoing

1. 3 literature reviews completed2. Shushilan has completed their fieldwork for 5 BWDB polders and 4 LGED sub-projects for the

qualitative survey and submitted 140 transcripts of FGDs and KIs.

3. Shushilan has submitted three field reports and two situation analysis reports. Remaining fieldreports to be submitted by end of June and Situation Analysis reports by end of September. All draft

documentaries have been completed, final version by August.

4. Camelia has completed coding process of approximately 170 transcripts from the 9 sites and keyinformant interviews with senior officials from February.

5. All the 9 maps from IWM have been completed showing formal/informal structures, mouzaboundaries.

6. BISR have completed their participatory mapping exercise of land use and hotspots and havesubmitted to IWM for digitalizing in maps.

7. Fieldwork for institutional case (specifically on illegal/informal gates) has been completed. Firstdraft has been received and commented on. Final draft to be submitted 20

thJune.

8. 3 BAU students have submitted their draft MSc theses and will submit final ones end of June.9. Camelia was in Bangladesh on 24th and 25th of May and met all the partners and got an update from

them.

Appointment of new staff10. Marie-Charlotte Buisson has joined as a post doc. She specializes in impact evaluation and will work

in designing quantitative survey in selected polders. Arijit Das, a national consultant has also joined

the team and will work on conducting experimental games among members of the polder

communities. Both are economists, one trained in impact evaluation and the other in behavioural

experiments.


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Aditi a question from Pamela do these experimental games include identifying where the power and

influence lies in the network? Remember the work that was done by the post doc from IFPRI in Ghana there

is a toolkit available.

Signing of MOU with BWDB

11. An MOU with BWDB has signed in end April 2012. The purpose of the MOU is to..Aditi added that they need to know the constraints that farmers face in establishing intensified agriculture,

hence the importance of farmer surveys in the watershed pilot. Discussion followed on how G2 and G4 can

work together, particularly on the many informal structures in Polder 3. G4 is recommending the formalization

of these structures, but the challenge in doing so is to ensure the embankment does not fail as they are very

fragile in certain locations. Zahir suggested that G4 and G3 meet to explore how many formal structures could

be established and what social and biophysical effects would be expected.

Action point: Aditi and Zahir to identify a time and team members to discuss the selection and formalization

of a current illegal structures.

IWM Ganges 4: Zahir provided a brief description of project activities during April-June, 2012

followed by Nasimul who elaborated on some of the points. Progress is summarised below

Field visits, interaction meetings, data collection, literature review, driver identification, workshop,

training

Collection and analysis of hydrological data

Assessment of Climate Change Scenarios

Simulating climate change scenarios

Assessment of cross-boundary flow, effect of land use change and population growth

Development, calibration and validation of SWAT model for assessing baseline condition

Simulation of scenarios and assessment of anticipated changes on water resources

Development, calibration and validation of SWRM and BoB flow and salinity models

Assessment of baseline water flow in coastal region of the Ganges River

Progress on Primary Data Collection

Salinity monitoring commenced in June 2011 and will continue to June 2013

Water Level and Water Flow measurement are completeTopographic survey and khal cross-section has finished for Polder 3 and 30

Polder alignment and Structure information is complete

Progress on Secondary Data Collection

Meteorological Data (Rainfall, Evaporation, Temperature, Wind speed) has been collected from BMD

and BWDB


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Water Level and Water flow has been collected from BIWTA and BWDB

Updates from IWMI:

Data has been collected

The model has been set up

The calibrations is expected to be finished by July 2012

A critical area for Zahir is the need to further develop the drivers of change and priorities following the

triangulation workshop. Scenarios need to be developed by combining the drivers, and the G4 team are

organizing a workshop in July with partners to further develop the scenarios. Have. A GIS map on salinity is also

under development. The water model of the SW region is now validated, and the team are now calibrating the

salinity modeling approach. BWDB are working with G4 to collect salinity data. Following the presentations

Manoranjan observed that the data collection for 2012 would be very useful to feed into G2 cropping plan.

Action: Zahir, Liz, Manoranjan, and teams to ensure timely data sharing for cropping pattern decision making.

3) Coordination and Change Project : Issues arising at programmatic level that affect all projects:Pamela updated participants on the recent Colombo Peer-assist meeting where all Basin Leaders,

members of the CPWF Management Team, and secretariat staff come together to discuss progress in

the Annual Reports, and other programmatic issues.

Tonya is preparing the feedback from the peer assist and will provide to Basin Leaders as soon as

possible for sharing with project leaders. Some early comments worth sharing now from CPWF include

coordination between GBDC projects. Specifically identified were G2 and G3 on governance factors driving

water levels. - how sensitive is the work of G2 to the multitude of uncertainties affecting the dynamics of water

availability and quality? And that G3 and G4 are coordinating in their study of informal infrastructure (cuts andpipes) and institutions. An increase of activities related to stakeholder participation (through stakeholder

platforms) needs to be improved in collaboration with BRAC.

Funding issues were high on the agenda, and while 2012 payments are confirmed, with the 21% cut,

the CPWF does not have surety about 2013 until November 1 when the Consortium Board meet. If

funding is not approved there was discussion about closing the CPWF by March 2013. Andy queried the

date, and in response Pamela explained that the tranche payment system used by CPWF was to pay 9

months/3 months of subsequent yearly budgets. Andy advised that savings in the first year enabled G1

to continue beyond March 2013, Aditi is currently experiencing some budget issues and is seekingclarity from IWMI. Liz gave her comment but the conversation was broken up (Liz can you insert the

essence of your reaction?). Pamela then moved to reporting requirements, stating that GBDC currently

operates under CRP5, and we therefore need to be responsive to their financial and technical reporting

requirements. Financial reports, signed by the CFO, for expenditures 1 January to 30 June 2012 are

required by mid August, as well as the full annual financial report at the end of the year. Technical

Progress reports are due in September 2012, validated in December, and Annual report in March 2013,


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validated in June. If agreement is reached to link GBDC with CRP 1.3, then the reporting format and

calendar would revert to CRP 1.3. Pamela stated that her expectation was that the current Annual

Reports provide the basis for the CRP5 mid-year reporting requirements.

Pamela and Liz will discuss the requirements of GBDC to establish advisory committee/s, while Pamela

will be following up on the establishment of the CAC.

In response to a question from Liz on the Basin Leader situation, Pamela advised that she will continue to be

involved in G5, while Kevin Kamp is talking the intellectual leadership of Ganges Project to oversee integration

into the AAS. The process of identifying the research agenda and strategy continues, with an AAS Stakeholder

Consultation Workshop being heldon 3rd-5th July, 2012 at Jessore. Representatives from all GBDC projects will

be participating.

Communications: Michael Victor will visit Bangladesh in late June to provide advice and strategic direction for a

Bangladesh wide Communications Strategy encompassing all WorldFish activities. His initial focus will be the

CPWF and AAS project. Salma will mail Communication discussion points regarding content of Ganges

Newsletter #2, Success story, news for CPWF e-letter, Wiki training etc to the Pls.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Emdad has been working with Boru Douthwaite to design a KASP survey planned to

be undertaken early 2013. After Borus review it will be shared with Ganges project leaders.

4) Any Other business:BRAC will organize a daylong stakeholder workshop at Faridpur on 16 July, 2012. Dr. Sirajul Islam, Program head

of AFSP, BRAC will take necessary action in this aspect.

5) Date of next meeting:Wednesday 1st of August, 2012 was agreed as the next meeting date. An alternative to skype is desirable as

connectivity for Liz in particular was disappointing. It will be much better with Webex.com with good

microphone and speakers. Pamela expressed her gratitude to everyone for their participation and closed the

meeting.

Meeting Minutes of Bi-Monthly Meeting June 11- Final

Documents

Transcript of Meeting Minutes of Bi-Monthly Meeting June 11- Final