SUPPLY AND UTILIZATION OF WATER RESOURCES FORBIOPRODUCTION IN BANGLADESH
Dr. Md. Shahid Ullah Talukder1
Abstract:
In this paper supply and utilization of water resources for bioproduction in Bangladesh emphasizing crop
production, development of animal resources and development and production of fishery resources havebeen discussed.
Irrigation from the surface water is not feasible for crop production for most of the areas of Bangladesh
during winter (October to April) which in turn has been occupied by groundwater. Total cultivable landin the country is 8.42 Mha out of which 4.48 Mha (53 per cent) is now under irrigation. Contribution ofgroundwater irrigation to total irrigated area is 73 per cent while that of surface water is 27 per cent.
Shallow Tubewell (STW) technology covers 56 per cent of the total irrigated area.
About 59 per cent of the total land is used for agriculture. Out of the total area under cultivation ricealone occupies 75.35 per cent and cereal as a whole about 81.14 per cent. Total cereal production was
28.21 MT for 2003-2004 indicating that the country has reached near self-sufficiency in food grain andcould fulfil the target set for 2025. Inland total fish production at present is 78 per cent and the annual
growth rate of fish production was 5.70 in 2002-2003. Fishery resources contribute 5.24 per cent andlivestock resources contribute 16.13 per cent in country's agricultural production. An annual average
growth rate of 20 per cent has been achieved in the poultry sector in the past decade. Thus proper supply
and efficient utilization of water resources is a must for bioproduction in Bangladesh.
Introduction:
Bangladesh is a country of about 130 million people with an area of 1,47, 570 sq.km., situated on thenortheast of South Asia bounded by India on the west, north and east, a shorter border with Myanmar in
the south-east and is bordered by Bay of Bengal in the south. The country is lying in the delta of threemighty rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) and a complex river network of 230 rivers
occupying about 6 percent of the area. Of a total of 1.72 million sq.km. catchment area of the Ganges,

1

Professor, Department of Irrigation and Water Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

1Brahmaputra and Meghna basins, only 7 to 8 percent belongs to Bangladesh while the rest is accounted
for by India, Nepal, Bhutan and China. The country is riverine and, by and large flat with flood plains
constituting about 80 percent of its landmass (Ahmed, 2003). The excess of water during the monsoon
causes wide spread flooding which damages a considerable amount of crop every year.
The economy of Bangladesh is essentially agrarian which in turn is critically dependent on water
resources. Besides agriculture, water is also vital for other sectors such as domestic and municipal supply,
industry, fishery, forestry, navigation and above all for ecology and environment (Rahman, 1995).
Bangladesh has a total land area of 14.39 million ha of which 8.42 million ha are under cultivation. Outof total cultivable land only 4.48 Mha (53%) is now under irrigation (NMIC, 2001). It is also a flat delta
built up by the alluvial deposit of the big rivers (GBM). It is located between 88°10′ and 92°41′ east
longitude and 20°34′ and 26°38′ north latitude. Eighty percent of the people depend on agriculture, which
contribute 45% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Approximately 37% of GDP is derived from cropsof which rice accounts for 25 percent (BBS, 2001). Until 2000, the country faced a deficiency of 1.5 to
2.0 MT per year where the requirement was more than 20 MT. The population of the country is expected
to rise to 181 million by 2025 and to 224 million by 2050 requiring an additional food grains although
she faces many challenges ahead in an era of increasing globalization (Mozaddad Faruque, 2004).
Bangladesh has a humid, warm, tropical climate (sub-tropical monsoon) which is fairly uniform
throughout the country with three main seasons, namely, hot season with high humidity (March to June),
hot humid monsoon season with heavy rainfall (June to September) and a relatively cool and dry winterseason (November to March). The country has good annual rainfall ranging from about 1500 mm in thewestern part to as high as almost 5800 mm in the north-east region with a mean annual rainfall of 2327
mm and favourable temperature and sunshine for crop production round the year. However, about 90
percent of the total rainfall falls during the monsoon months that results in high runoff. During the dry
period from November to February the rainfall of 40 to 140 mm is too low to meet the crop waterrequirement (Talukder, 1996).
The recent discovery of the arsenic contamination of the shallow aquifer has set back past successes inbringing safe water supply to the rural people of Bangladesh.
2

Supply and Utilization of Surface and Groundwater
Surface Water Resources:
Bangladesh has 230 rivers (big or small), out of which 57 are transboundary rivers-54 coming from Indiaand 3 from Myanmar. The total length of the rivers is about 24,000 km. Rivers and inland water bodies
cover nearly 6.7% of country’s total area of 1,47,570 sq.km. The water ecosystem of the country
comprises the tributaries and distributories of the above three major river systems and numerous
perennial and seasonal wetlands like ponds, haors, baors and beels. The sources of almost all the rivers lie
outside the country which constitutes a combined catchment area of about 1.72 million sq.km. of which
only 7% lies within the country. In Bangladesh rainfall and transboudary river flows are the main sourcesof surface water. Being the lower riparian, Bangladesh has no control of the huge cross boundary flow
causing recurrent flooding in about 25% of the area in average years. The percentage may be as high as
67 of the total area of the country as occurred in 2004. Surface water inflows of the country vary from amaximum of about 1,40,000 cumec in August to a minimum of about 7,000 cumec in February. Twomain rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra account for more than 80% of streamflows(BANGLAPEDIA, 2003). During the dry season, discharges in the rivers are significantly scarce to meetthe need of agriculture, navigation, fisheries, forestry, environment and other water related sectors. The
dry season discharge is now becoming more scarce due to the upstream unilateral withdrawal of thewaters of the Ganges and other common rivers by India.
Bangladesh used to get uninterrupted flow in its river system from time immemorial. The silt carried by
the river systems has developed the formation of the greatest delta of the world. The water has shaped thelife and living of the people. The drastic reduction of the Ganges flow affected 40 million people in thesouth west region wholly dependent on the Ganges and has had disastrous effects on agriculture, industry,
forestry, fisheries, navigation, salinity and domestic water supplies. India is also withdrawing water of the
Mohanada, Teesta, Monu, Muhuri, Khowai and many other common rivers and streams thereby affecting
the main crops and has started the process of dessertification in the region (Khan, 1995). Bangladesh has
plenty of water but its uneven distribution, overabundance in monsoon often causes catastrophic floods
and scarcity in dry season causes severe drought conditions leading to loss of crops, livestock, fisheries,
public health problems and environmental degradation (BANGLADEDIA, 2003).

3

Groundwater Resources:
Heavy rainfall and floods during the monsoon season help the groundwater to be substantially recharged
annually through the alluvium deposits constituting huge aquifer system throughout the country withreasonably good storage and transmission properties. According to WARPO (2000) the total available
recharge of groundwater within the country is 21 BCM which is about 22.8% of the total waterrequirement of the country. Irrigation from the surface water is not feasible for most of the areas of
Bangladesh because of the limited quantity of water which can be safely drawn from the rivers or fromperennial streams although many surface water irrigation facilities have been developed. Therefore,groundwater is the only constant source of water supply remained for the successful cultivation of crops.
Bangladesh has become increasingly dependent on groundwater sources for meeting irrigation demands
using tubewell tehnologies i.e. minor irrigations. Farmers have to use groundwater to grow Boro rice inthe winter (Rabi season) when there is little or no rainfall as well as local rivers and water bodies dries up.
Transboundary inflows of rivers are also diminishing alamlingly due to progressively increasing
withdrawal in the upper riparian countries thereby hampering recharge to groundwater to a great extent(BANGLAPEDIA, 2003). The lowering of groundwater level in the northern region albeit all overBangladesh together with less rainfall has intensified the phenomenon of drought affecting the main
crops and has started the process of dessertification in this region.
Irrigation and Water Management (IWM):
Total cultivable land in the country is 8.42 Mha out of which 4.48 Mha (53%) is now under irrigation
coverage (NMIC, 2001). Rice is the largest irrigation user with over 75% of the total irrigated area.
Utmost efforts are being made by the Government of Bangladesh to attain self-sufficiency in foodproduction. Improved IWM practices along with farm mechanization, use of MV seed and fertilizers havemade a major break through for increasing crop production. Present food grain production (rice) is 26.76
million MT of which 19.80 million MT is modern variety and the rest is local variety. Projected
population in the country by the year 2025 will be about 181 million and food grain requirement will be
more than 30 million MT which is 30% higher than the present production level. The increasing foodgrain demand will have to be met from our limited and shrinking land resources.
Growth in Irrigation at National Level:
4

Contribution of groundwater irrigation to total irrigated area has increased from 41% in 1982/83 to 73%
in 2000/2001 while contribution of surface water has steadily declined from 59% to 27% over the same
period (Fig. 1) (NMIC, 2001).
Total Land and River Areas:
The estimated distribution of total land together with river areas are given in Table 1. The area of rivers
and other areas (including charlands) remains almost constant at 6 to 7%. Forest and mangrove increases
slightly from 19 to 22%, while urban and rural settlements together increase from 11 to 15%. The biggest
change affects agriculture and standing water bodies, which together reduce from 65 to 56%. Within thislast pairing water increases from 5 to 9%, and agricultural land declines from 59% to 47% (WARPO,
2000). This is largely due to the expansion of fish production on agricultural land once culturable waste
has been used up.
Table 1. Estimated Land Distribution in 1995, 2025 and 2050
Area in km2
Classification

Proportion of Bangladesh

1995

2025

2050

1995

2025

2050

River & Other

7,999

8,903

9,682

5.7%

6.4%

6.9%

Forest & Mangrove

26,01530,31530,645

18.6%

21.7%

21.9%

Urban & Rural

15,431

21,123

20,798

11.0%

15.1%

14.9%

Water & Agriculture

90,36879,552

78,836

64.6%

56.9%

56.3%

Agriculture Land Availability:
Current land use depicted that 59% of the total land is used for agriculture followed by forest andmangrove (19%), urban and others (13%) and rivers and water bodies (9%) (WARPO, 2001). Per captia
agricultural land has been reduced imposing additional requirements for crop production.
Cereal Yields and Production:
Based on present trends and ignoring the potential for the introduction of new rice types (Hybrids, Super
Rice or Genetically Modified crops) or of agronomic improvements beyond those experienced over thelast 16 years, the yields and outputs are estimated and given in Table 2. An estimate is also made of the5yield that would be required to meet demand on the assumption that only HYV boro has the potential forsignificant yield increase.
Table 2. Supply and Demand for Rice
Year

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Total rice production, less HYV Boro (Mt)

11.96

11.19

10.84

10.40

9.48

9.32

HYV Boro Area (ha)

3.29

3.91

4.52

5.14

5.47

5.36

HYV Boro Yield (t/ha)

2.86

2.90

2.94

2.97

3.01

3.05

Total Rice Production (Mt)

21.35

22.50

24.12

25.69

25.95

25.69

Rice Demand, Gross (Mt)

21.60

24.10

26.50

28.80

30.60

32.10

Shortfall (Mt)

0.25

1.60

3.38

3.11

4.65

6.41

Required Boro Yield (t/ha)

2.93

3.31

3.46

3.58

3.86

4.25

Increased on predicted rates

103%

114%

118%

120%

128%

139%

Thus, if all the irrigable area could be irrigated when required boro yields would still have to improve byalmost 40% above current predicted yields to 4.25 t/ha (rice) to meet demand in 2025 (WARPO, 2000).
This is not inconceivable, but will require considerable effort on behalf of researchers and disseminatorsof improved seed technology.
In the year 2003-2004 the total rice production was 26.76 MT which was slightly higher than the rice
demand set for 2005. The projected demand of rice estimated for 2025 is 32.10 MT. Total cereal
production was found to be 28.21 MT for 2003-2004 which is adequate to feed her population (BBS,
2001 ; DAE, 2004). The cropping intensity was about 177 during 2000-2001. The net and total cropped
area during this period were 8.09 and 14.31 Mha, respectively. Area under cultivation, in Bangladesh,
2000-2001 for various crops grown are depicted in Fig. 2. Rice alone covered a total area of 75.35% of
all the crops grown in which Aus covered 12.28%, Aman 52.08% and Boro 34.84% of the total rice (BBS,2001).

Fisheries Development:
Bangladesh has vast inland water resources in the form of ponds, beels and haors (natural depressions),
baors (ox-bow lakes), canals, rivers and estuaries, flood plains, reservoirs and impounded brackish water.
6

LLP
15%

MOPU DTW
1%
12%

Trad
4%
Canal
12%

DTW
STW
Canal
Trad
LLP
MOPU

Others
15.56%
Rice
W heatPulsesOthersPulses3.3%
W heat5.79%

Rice
75.35%

STW
56%

Fig. 1 Irrigated Area by Technology, 2000-01

Fig. 2 Area under Cultivation in Bangladesh, 2000-01

It has marine fisheries too. An estimate of annual total catch and productivity area by sectors of fisheries
for July 2002 to June 2003 is given in Table 3. It can be seen that the inland water bodies are highly
productive and the capture and culture total catch under inland fisheries were 35.50% and 42.89%, giving
an inland total fish production of 78.39%. Marine fisheries contributed only 21.61% of the total catchindicating that inland fisheries played a vital role in the total catch for consumption and export (FSYB,
2002-2003). The contribution of agriculture to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is 45%, ofwhich 5.24% comes from fisheries. Fisheries sector contributes 4.76 % of the foreign exchange earning.
Fish accounts for 13.5 kg per capita annual fish intake, about 6% of the per capita protein intake andcontributes about 64% of the animal protein throughout the country. At present per capita annual fish
demand is 18 kg and annual total fish demand is 2.4 million metric tons (Fishery Week, 2003). Annual
growth rate of fish production varied with the highest (8.15) obtained in 1996-97 and the lowest (5.70) in
2002-2003.
Table 3. Annual Total Catch and Area Productivity by Sectors of Fisheries for July 2002-June 2003.
Sector of Fisheries

Water Area
(Hectare)Total Catch(Metric Ton)

Catch/Area(Kg/Hectare)(i) Capture Total

4,047,316

709,333

35.50%(ii) Culture Total

437,341

856,956

42.89%

4,484.657

1,566,289

78.39%(iii) Marine Total

431,908

21.61%Country Total

1,998,197

100%

A. Inland FisheriesInland Total
B. Marine Fisheries

7Livestock Development:
The contribution of livestock in the economy of Bangladesh is enormous and multifarious. It’s
contribution in cultivating agricultural lands, threshing of crops, transportation of goods, production oforganic manure and supply of fuel plays a very significant role. Milk, meat and egg production by
livestock helps in meeting up the protein demand of the people. Millions of country’s unemployed youth,
young women, landless and marginal farmers have been trying hard to change their fate by rearing
animals. The density of livestock in Bangladesh is comparatively higher than that of other countries of
the world. The density of cattle per acre is 0.91 in the world, in Asia it is 0.95 and in Bangladesh it is 2.92.
Although the density is high but the productivity power is very low even in comparison to theneighbouring countries. The annual milk production per cow in Bangladesh is only 206 kg compared to
Asia (1220 kg) and the world (2190 kg). A revolutionary change has occurred in the world including
Bangladesh during the last decade on the productivity of livestock due to different scientific andtechnological developments. The contribution of livestock sector in our national economy is shown in
Table 4. The livestock contributes 16.13% in country’s agricultural production, 3.12% in national
economy, 20% in full time self-employment. The contribution of livestock from hide and skin in foreignexchange earning is 3.46% as estimated in 2001-2002. It also supplies 25% of rural fuel (AR, 2002-2003).
Table 4. Livestock Resources in Bangladesh
Contribution of Livestock Resources in National Economy

3.12%**

Contribution of Livestock Resources in Agricultural Production

16.13**

Contribution of Livestock Resources in Self-Employment (Full time) 20%
Production of Livestock Products (in Million US $)20.34

Land Cultivation

75%

Rural Transport

50%

Organic Manure Production

80 MT (million metric ton)

Rural Fuel Supply

25%

Role of Agro-environmental Education:

8

The role of agro-environmental education in the supply and utilization of water resources forbioproduction is manifold. The Government of Bangladesh has established a good number of academic
institutions, Government, semi-government and nongovernment organizations (NGO) which are also
playing vital roles for this purpose. People’s participation in bringing success to major and minor water
resources projects for bioproduction is a must. Syllabuses and curricula with respect to soil-water-plantatmosphere in every phases of education are updated time to time in order to impart appropriate
knowledge about these aspects. Trainings are arranged for to those who are basically involved with soilwater-plant-atmosphere right from top level policy makers to bottom level farmers. Seminar, symposium
and workshop for the rural youth, stakeholders, scientists, researchers, academicians and policy makers
on water resources for bioproduction are also arranged by the appropriate agencies/institutions/organizations for disseminating knowledge from top to bottom. Bangladesh Agricultural University isplaying a pioneering role in agro-environmental education involving water resources for bioproduction
from early sixties.
Conclusion:a) Abundantly available surface water during monsoon should be stored in canals, ponds, beels, haors,
baors and rivers for supplemental irrigation to rice crop.
b) Groundwater, the only constant source of water supply during winter, should be judiciously used for
irrigating rabi crops including boro rice using tubewell technologies.
c) In order to feed the taming million of the people of Bangladesh, rice yield specially boro yield need to
be increased.
d) Availability of water for rearing livestock resources should be made which in turn will develop this
sector.
e) Surface water in ponds & ditches, beels, haors, baors, lakes & reservoirs, flood land and river &estuaries should be adequately available for the development and production of fishery resources in
the country.
f) Academic, research and training programmes should be updated as necessary for proper utilizationand management of water resources for bioproduction.

9g) Awareness among the end users should be created in using the limited but costly irrigation water
through utilizing modern tubewell technologies for increasing winter crop production.

References:
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BANGLAPEDIA, (2003). National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, Vol. 4, 8 & 10. Asiatic Society of
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10