RAJSHAHI, Aug 24 (BSS): Abu Zafar Ahmed, a farmer of Mohanpur village under Godagari upazila, has been cultivating guava on eight bighas of land for the last couple of years.
He had to arrange irrigation to the orchard regularly through a pump by burning 50-60 liters of diesel per week as there was no deep tubewell.
In order to curtail his excessive irrigation cost Ahmed installed a solar power dependent drip irrigation technology in his guava orchard with financial support from the recently phase-out Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) project.
At present, there is no irrigation cost, but previously, he had to spend Taka 15,000 per month on an average for only irrigation purposes.
The IWRM project provided 80 per cent and he spent the rest twenty percent of the Taka 0.55 million (5.5 lakh) scheme.
Not only Ahmed's orchard, four other drip units were commissioned in other areas irrigating more than 40 bighas of farmlands.
Shafiul Islam Mukta, a resident of Godagari upazila said, has developed three dragon orchards on 52 bighas of land in Gogram and Matikata areas.
Relating to the production cost, he said around Taka 0.26 million (2.60 lakh) is required for dragon farming on one bigha of land.
Different types of modern and cost-effective irrigation technologies are being promoted in the region including its vast Barind tract, in order to reduce the gradual mounting cost for irrigation besides boosting soil productivity.
Many of the farmers avail the scopes of being familiarised with water saving technologies like drip irrigation, fertigation and alternate furrow irrigation in their farmlands in the region during last Rabi season.
Swiss Red Cross has implemented the IWRM project in drought-affected 39 Unions and three municipalities in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts supported by Switzerland.
Jahangir Alam Khan, who was coordinator of the IWRM project, said they worked with the main thrust of building the UP like local government institutions as effective and pro-people institutions through farmers' level sustainable water resource management amidst people participation.
He said the drip irrigation method consumes 50 to 60 per cent less water than that of conventional systems.
The solar system pump has capacity to provide irrigation to more than 2,000 bighas of cropland round the year.
The method also helps to reduce fertiliser use by at least 45 per cent as it has provision of mixing fertilizer with irrigation water.
As the system is dependent on solar power the matter of fuel saving is also important. So, time has come to expand such a method furthermore in the Barind area.
Khan also said many of the entrepreneurs have set up dragon orchards and are doing successful business in different areas of the dried region after the best uses of drip irrigation technology.
Gogram UP Chairman Mujibur Rahman said the newly-commissioned solar power- based drip irrigation pumps have opened up a new door in the agriculture sector as farmers can boost their farming yields through the irrigation facilities round the year.
In addition to benefiting the farmers economically, the pumps are contributing to reduce the gradually increasing pressure on power supply.
Prof Mijanur Rahman of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences in Rajshahi University said the power produced through fossil fuel is carbon contaminated and that it always pollutes the environment.
Besides, its production cost is high. However, the solar system power generation is a new idea, which is renewable, less production cost and carbon-free.
As a whole, the solar system has a significant contribution towards lessening the pressure on the gradually increasing power demands. He said the farmers will no longer depend on the mercy of power supply for crop production if the solar irrigation system functions successfully.
