Solar-run irrigation pumps have emerged as a blessing for many farmers in Rangpur char areas amid inadequate rain, frequent power cuts and higher prices of diesel.
Agriculturalists, experts and farmers opined that solar-operated irrigation cuts dependency on diesel and electricity and makes a sustainable solution saving huge numbers of foreign currencies. It also reduces carbon emissions for ecological balance in the country.
Local sources said Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) and Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) brought some 5,000 hectares of land for a crop diversification programme under solar solar-based power pump irrigation system by installing 327 pump machines in the Rangpur region.
The corporation has installed solar driven mobile irrigation- Low Lift Pump (LLP) system set up on boats and trolleys in the river basin areas under the Minor Irrigation Development & Irrigation Efficiency Enhancement Project through Surface Water Conservation to facilitate cropping intensity in the char lands of the districts. Apart from this, dug wells have also been set up on unsubmerged char lands to expedite the irrigation.
The system has created huge interest among the farmers as it proved profitable to them.
A hundred hectares of sandy lands at different chars under the Teesta River basin areas of the region remained fallen and uncultivated for years.
Small initiatives on an individual scale often were found to cultivate the lands with a short supply of irrigation from the Teesta River, but the attempt proved futile due to heavy expenses.
Lands at Char Taluk Shabaz, Dhusmara Char, Horichoron Sharma, and Chargonai char under the Kawnia upazila of the district remained fallen and uncultivated for years. The villagers either had to depend on the river and sell daily labour going to the upazila headquarters to maintain their livelihood.
Many of them gradually have become able to change their lot by farming different crops including spicy produce in the fallen lands from November to April of the year. The crops include- potato, maize, wheat, paddy, sweet gourd, squash, chilly, onion and garlic.
A farmer of a remote char Dhusmara, Moktar Ali, said several hundred hectares of char lands in the upazila remained uncultivated even a few years back. The wealthy farmers in the village tried to transplant the lands by supplying shallow machine water which proved very costly and painstaking. The marginal farmers could not afford the cost. But with the support of a solar-based mobile pump irrigation system on the trolly of BADC facilitated the farming in the chars significantly.
He has been cultivating potato, Boro paddy, wheat, maize, pumpkin, garlic, onion and spicy crops on his ten acres of land and getting huge profits for the last three years. The farmers in the chars now can easily irrigate the sand bars with the help of solar driver mobile machines set up in trolleys and boats in the river.
He has to spend Tk 500 for irrigating one bigha of land with the solar-driven mobile pump while it costs around Tk 2,000-2,500 by the diesel-run shallow machine supply.
Another farmer, Dulal Miah at Taluk Shabaz char said he cultivated potatoes on two acres of char lands this year and later he planted nuts in the same lands after potato extraction. Earlier, they had to spend Tk 8,000 for irrigating one acre of land while they are paying Tk 1,500 now.
BADC’s solar-driven mobile irrigation- LLP system set up in boat and trolley helped the marginal farmers lot for massive cropping in the fallen lands, he added.
Agriculture expert, Mamunur Rashid said, the scenario in char areas of the region has been changing and getting greener for the last three years with the initiative of the solar driven mobile coordinated irrigation system of the government. Farmers remained busy around the year undertaking diversified cropping in the shoal areas.
Superintendent Engineer BADC Rangpur, SM Shahidul Alam said, “We have six schemes in the char areas under Minor Irrigation Development & Irrigation Efficiency Enhancement Project through Surface Water Conservation in Rangpur area.”
“The solar-driven mobile irrigation system has made a sustainable development in cropping patterns on the fallen lands. We have submitted a proposal to set up some more 800 solar panels and 280 irrigation machines to bring more lands under the farming project,” he added.
Rangpur BMDA Superintendent Engineer Md Habibur Rahman Khan said the government has prioritised the sustainable irrigation system using water resources properly. It has introduced cost-effective and environment friendly advanced scientific agricultural tools that made agriculture easier even on the shoal areas of the country
The corporation, however, has been trying to bring more land into the chars under the intensive cropping pattern.
Rangpur DAE Deputy Director Abdullah AL Mamun said, the farmers earlier had to face severe trouble to produce crops in the char lands. The solar-driven power pump and LLP mobile irrigation system of BADC and BMDA facilitated the diversified cropping patterns in the char lands of the district.
