Abstract:

The North West Rural Development Project (NWRDP) was undertaken by BRDB in collaboration with BADC and Sonali Bank, with financial assistance from ADB. Implemented in the greater districts of Kushtia, Rajshahi and Pabna, the project provided through its 'agricultural production component' a number of minor irrigation equipment and other facilities, to increase foodgrain production and to offer opportunities for employment generation in the project area. This study made an attempt to evaluate the performance of the irrigation equipment and facilities provided under the NWRDP. The study was primarily based on a questionnaire survey carried out in 8 villages in the project area, where a total of 273 households were interviewed. In addition, the study undertook a reconnaissance survey in 14 upazilas, and conducted another questionnaire survey covering 42 NWRDP DTW/LLP schemes selected through a stratified-random sampling technique.

The study finds that, at the micro level, the project achieved many of its targets. For example, the yield per hectare (ha) of modern-variety (MV) boro, MV amon and MV wheat were found to be 5.70, 4.69, and 2.78 metric tons, respectively. The shift from cultivation of local varieties to that of modern ones evidently resulted in an increase in labour requirement by 25 percent. The cropping intensity was observed to be 175 percent in plots under irrigated condition compared to 150 percent in those without irrigation facilities.

At the macro level, the study reveals that as a result of the availability of NWRDP DTWs, LLPs and command area development (CAD) structures, an additional amount of 54,069 metric tons (55.16% of the targeted quantity) of foodgrains were produced in the project area the year before the survey. The additional farm income and farm surplus generated from paddy cultivation in the project area tuned to be Tk. 167 and 125 million at 1989-90 prices. The project appeared to have made use of 1.9 million man-days of additional labour in paddy cultivation, of which 55 percent were supplied from family sources and 45 percent from the market. Moreover, the project seemed to have some beneficial impacts on income distribution as it appeared that the system of water sharing was more or less equitable and that the major beneficiaries of employment generation were the small and marginal farmers and landless households for whom the project was originally designed.

However, performance in none of the aforementioned areas were able to meet the macro targets of the project primarily because the irrigation equipments failed to serve projected areas and, hence, to benefit anticipated number of beneficiaries. For example, the command area was observed to be 15.5 ha per DTW and 7.86 ha per LLP, compared to the projected 35 ha and 10 ha respectively. The poor rate of capacity utilization could be attributed to the nature of soil, problems in management of equipment, technical problems, and presence of STWs within the command area. On the other hand, CAD programmes facilitated an increment of 6 ha per DTW as opposed to the projected 10 ha. Many of the facilities supposed to be available within the CAD package were not found to exist in the field. The study offers a number of recommendations to enhance the efficiency of the irrigation equipments for making the project more successful.

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