Adaptive Agricultural System to Dynamic Water Condition in a Low-Lying Area of Bangladesh

Abstract

The authors describe how farmers of Jawar village, which is located on the fringe of a large inundated area (haor) in Bangladesh, engage in agriculture and try to evaluate their traditional agricultural techniques. The farmers of the village cultivate a high yield variety (HYV) aman rice in high-elevation fields, a local variety (LV) in low-elevation fields and both varieties in medium-elevation fields to fit the ordinal water condition of the rainy season. In a flooding year they transplant LV aman rice even in parts of medium- and high-elevation fields where HYV is transplanted under ordinal circumstances in order to be well adapted to the dynamic hydrological condition. Aman rice cultivation in Jawar village is used to cope with flooding and water receding and the dry field crop (rabi) area increases in the following dry season to recover from losses in rice production of the former rainy season. Total rabi cultivated area of a flooding year is two times larger than that of the year before flooding, especially mustard cultivated area is three times larger. It can be said the farmers implement two countermeasures to increase crop production security; selecting a local rice variety in the rainy season and increasing rabi cropping area in the dry season have been adapted to meet the dynamic hydrological condition.