In late 2007 Cyclone Sidr ravaged Bangladesh, killing thousands and destroying almost 660,000 hectares (ha) of crops. Of the Sidr-related losses, 86 percent were concentrated in 12 districts.
In Sidr’s wake, IFDC and the Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) initiated the Improved Livelihood for Sidr-Affected Rice Farmers (ILSAFARM) project in 2008 to help restore paddy* production by bringing urea deep placement (UDP) to 280,000 farm families. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) pledged $4.77 million to support ILSAFARM for two years.
John Allgood, director of IFDC’s EurAsia Division, says that IFDC has been providing support in agricultural development in Bangladesh for three decades. “We have worked extensively to develop improved efficiency in fertilizer marketing. Our attention recently has been to increase the efficiency of fertilizer-nutrient application. We are continuing to work with the Ministry of Agriculture, the DAE, the Bangladesh Fertilizer Association, small private micro-enterprises and farmers to improve access to and use of improved fertilizer products.”
IFDC pioneered the development of UDP, a technology that reduces nitrogen losses significantly, and introduced it to Bangladesh. UDP, the insertion of large urea briquettes into the paddy root zone after transplanting, reduces urea fertilizer use by 40 percent while increasing crop yields by as much as 25 percent.
The UDP technology is expected to increase the net income of the beneficiary families by US $88 per harvest. With Bangladesh’s average per capita annual income around $520, this increase is a substantial one.
Within four months of ILSAFARM’s implementation, IFDC had established 71 demonstration plots in the fields of Sidr-affected rice farmers. Another 150 sites were identified for demonstrations and eight trial plots were established.
Irrigated and rain-fed paddy is the staple crop of small and greatly overpopulated Bangladesh. Ironically, most farmers who grow irrigated paddy – in Bangladesh and elsewhere – use only two of every three bags of urea fertilizer. This is because most farmers broadcast urea into the paddy water. Two-thirds of the product’s nitrogen is lost to the air as greenhouse gas or becomes groundwater pollutants.
The UDP technology not only improves farmer productivity and income, but the need for urea briquettes creates employment. IFDC engineers developed a simple machine to mold prilled or granular urea into either 1.8- or 2.7-gram briquettes. Helping establish village-level businesses to manufacture and distribute briquette-making machines was part of the IFDC program. Twenty-three new urea briquette manufacturers started production through ILSAFARM. Four are women.
“ILSAFARM brought enormous benefits to Sidr-affected farmers – particularly to women farmers or women who are actively involved in farm activities,” says Ishrat Jahan, IFDC team leader in Bangladesh. “Increased rice production is improving their income and thus, their quality of life.”
In 2009 alone, UDP reduced Bangladesh’s urea imports by 50,000 mt. That saved the nation almost $22 million in fertilizer imports and $14 million in government subsidies. UDP generated an additional 9.5 person-days of labor per hectare – almost 4.6 million additional days of labor. More importantly, the additional rice has already made 1.5 million more Bangladeshis food-secure.
In addition to ILSAFARM, the Bangladesh government began expanding UDP technology in 2009 to 2.9 million farm families on about 1.5 million ha. USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded the expansion, while IFDC provided technical assistance.
“We are fortunate that the government of Bangladesh, USAID, USDA, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Swiss Consulting Group have provided funding over the years enabling IFDC to maintain an active role in Bangladesh’s agricultural development,” Allgood said.
Rice production in 2011 is expected to increase by almost 1.0 million tons, ensuring food security for an additional 4.2 million Bangladeshis.
* [Webster's Dictionary defines "paddy" as (1) rice, especially threshed unmilled rice and (2) wetland in which rice is grown. The word "paddy" comes from the Malay word "padi" meaning rice plant.]
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