There are three rice-growing seasons in Bangladesh for Aus, Aman and Boro. While the Aus is an upland pre-monsoon crop with low yields, the Aman is a rain-fed monsoon crop. The Boro is a dry-season irrigated crop. For ages, Aus and Aman dominated the crop fields. The former used to be grown in dry season with natural water - sometimes available, sometimes not. More often than not, drought used to dictate the destiny. The latter is a monsoon crop when water becomes abundant. In fact, too much water occasionally caused hazards in this season. The Boro is used to be grown in low-lying land with water flowing from rivers, canals and beel. The yield of paddy grown in these three seasons was very low - 6-7 'maunds' per bigha. Quite obviously, it was not possible to feed 6-7 members of the family with such low level of output.
There was a time, especially during dry season, when farmers used to cry for want of water in fields. The prayer Allah megh de, pani de, Bristi dere tui… (Oh God, give us cloud, water and rain) is reminiscent of the dire need of water for the crops.
But remember, not all lands are of the same quality. Land at higher elevation may suffer from infertility and be exposed to droughts and hence may not be as productive as a parcel of land at lower elevation which may benefit from the deposit of silts from flooding. But the low-level land may be less intensively used as it might be kept fallow during the time of flooding. Apparently unproductive-looking deserts could be turned into productive assets if water could be made available to grow crops there. Access to infrastructural facilities such as irrigation could turn barren land fertile by allowing adoption of modern high-yielding crops.
The advent of deep tube wells to lift water from underground helped, to some extent, solve the problem. But soon a class of water lords emerged in a monopoly market of water. The water market could not be inclusive because of the high price and the whims of the owners. Thus water became a source of woes for the farmers. Then the government adopted deregulation and liberalisation of market for irrigation equipment. This can be considered as a turning-point in the history of Bangladesh's agriculture. As of now, about two million shallow tube wells are pouring water in fields. A vibrant water market has developed in rural areas.
In fact, it is the introduction of mechanised irrigation system that brought about a revolutionary change in the strategy of land-based livelihoods in rural Bangladesh. For example, we observe that about 70 per cent of the households now use ground water for irrigation purposes. The share was only one-thirds in 1988. The land with access to ground water irrigation infrastructure has increased three-fold over time from about one-fifths in 1988 to about two-thirds in 2008. On the other hand, the trend of using surface water- irrigation has also been rising. Overall, considering all the methods of irrigation, four-fifths of rural households are reported to have access to irrigation in 2008, covering more than three-fourths of the land. This compared with 42 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively in 1988.
A question posed earlier in literature on rural economy is whether the land-poor households would have access to irrigation and benefit from green revolution. The critics argued that the modern technology-led agricultural practices are expensive and cash-driven and, hence, only the large and medium farmers could afford to use the improved technologies. The argument was that the profit-hungry large and medium farmers would raise productivity of their land through irrigation and would take back the rented-out land from the tenants in the hope of making more profits. In consequence, tenant farmers would go broke. On the other hand, small and marginal farmers would be marginalised in the absence of the finance needed for installing a tube well or a power pump for irrigation.
The data obtained from the repeat household surveys fail to validate the positive relation between farm size and access to irrigation. We observe that even the very poor farmers (owning land up to 0.2 ha) substantially increased their participation in irrigation facilities over time - from roughly one-thirds of the group in 1988 to over four-fifths in 2008. But the critics were possibly right if we consider the conditions of the earlier period or even of a few years back. In fact, in 1988, small and marginal farmers were far behind their counterparts - large and medium farmers - in terms of irrigation coverage.
That difference gradually closed over time. In other words, small and marginal farmers who were once laggards in adopting this modern technology, have covered up and even overtaken the large farmers.
Presumably, at the early stage of the introduction of a new technology, the large farmer shows intense desire for risky adoption by virtue of their asset endowments. The inherent risk element in the new technology always deters the smaller ones. However, over time, these groups tend to 'learn by watching' and slowly become interested in the technology. This is just what happened in rural Bangladesh over the last two decades. Once there is a level playing field implying that access to all technologies become available for all, these tiny farmers can prove that they can be more efficient and productive than others - an observation made long ago by Nobel laureates Theodore Schultz (poor but efficient farmer) and Amartya Sen ( smaller farms are more productive).
The 'good news' about irrigation has been cast in the light of land ownership groups. But we do not presume any deviation from the conclusions even when the observations are pitted against farm size groups. For example, in terms of cultivated land, four-fifths of poor farmers in rural Bangladesh now use irrigation water. In 1988, only 36 per cent of this group used to do so. More importantly, the laggards of the past - the marginal farmers - have become the leaders of the present by leaving behind the earlier champions - the large and medium farmers. This again reminds us of Schultz's famous observation: small farmers are efficient. Access to given technology only makes them more efficient. Farmers of Bangladesh might shed tears even now - but these are tears of joy!
The writer is a Professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]
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