Putting the poorest farmers in control of disseminating improved wheat seed: a strategy to accelerate technology adoption and alleviate poverty in Bangladesh

This paper reports on a ‘bottom-up’ system of wheat seed technology transfer that was piloted in north–west Bangladesh with 45 mainly marginal (food insecure) farming families during the 2004–2005 wheat season, then scaled out to a further 545 mainly marginal, farming families during the 2006–2007 season. The system was devised following a survey which indicated that such farmers can obtain a 52% increase in wheat grain yield and extra income by switching from the old Kanchan variety to the newer, heat and disease-tolerant Shatabdi variety. The bottom-up wheat seed dissemination system involved the creation of an enabling environment which allowed poor and ultra-poor farmers to store and sell selected seed of recently-released wheat varieties that they produced in 20 decimal (0.08 ha) plots. During the pilot phase of the project in 2005, farmers produced 7, 976 kg of grain and more than 50% of this was selected as high quality seed, stored during the monsoon season and marketed to other farmers just prior to the following wheat season. This seed was sold at Tk25–30/kg and realised profits averaging Tk3,002 (€38.49; exchange rate was 78:1 in October 2005) per household. In 2007, the seed price had risen to Tk33–50/kg and a larger group of farmers produced, stored and marketed 168,800 kg of high quality wheat seed, which realised profits averaging Tk5,080, equivalent to €51 (exchange rate was 99.6:1 in October 2007), per household. This bottom up seed production and dissemination system met the wheat seed requirements of more than 1,400 neighbouring farmers in areas with a deficit of wheat seed for planting, and enabled poor and ultra-poor farmers to earn more than 50% of the income they needed to cross the local poverty line.

Summoning earth and fire: The energy development implications of Grameen Shakti (GS) in Bangladesh

Since its establishment in 1996, the nonprofit company Grameen Shakti (GS) has installed almost half a million solar home systems (SHS), 132,000 cookstoves, and 13,300 biogas plants among 3.1 million beneficiaries. They plan to ramp up their expansion so that by 2015, more than 1.5 million SHS are in place along with 100,000 biogas units and 5 million improved cookstoves. This article describes GS’s current activities, the contours of its programs, and likely reasons for its success. It also explores the remaining challenges facing GS and distils common lessons for other energy development assistance projects and programs around the world. After detailing research methods consisting primarily of research interviews and site visits, the article briefly explores the history of GS and summarizes its three most prominent programs. The article then identifies six distinct benefits to their programs—expansion of energy access, less deforestation and fewer greenhouse gas emissions, price savings, direct employment and income generation, improved public health, and better technology—before discussing challenges related to staff retention and organizational growth, living standards, technical obstacles, affordability, tension with other energy programs, political constraints, and awareness and cultural values.     

Calendar of Future Meetings Involving IWRA

ABSTRACT

Irrigation-water-delivery systems are designed and managed to receive water from a source and to distribute it among farmers in order to meet their agricultural requirements. High system performance can be achieved through rehabilitation of deteriorating and inadequate physical facilities and through improved system management. Various design decisions must be made in order to rehabilitate or develop irrigation-water-delivery systems, including those related to specification of the characteristics of hydraulic structures used to convey regulate, or divert water

This study develops and applies a response surface methodology (RSM) for achieving optimal design for hydraulic structures in irrigation-water-delivery systems in canal networks. This approach provides a means of understanding system behavior through developing a response surface in terms of a mathematical expression representing system performance as affected by design decisions. Design decisions include pipe diameters for diversion and regulating structures. Simulation of steady spatially varied flow was incorporated into the response surface methodology to determine high-performance low-cost solutions.

Objectives of adequacy, efficiency dependability, and equity of water delivery were considered in defining water delivery performance. Fuzzy membership functions were used to address subjectivity associated with interpreting expected values of performance measures associated with each of the prescribed objectives.

This study is an extension of a previous study by Alshaikh [1]. That study reported the application of RSM on a single canal case while herein RSM was used for the case of a canal network. Though, in general, RSMs for large-scale branched systems are computationally intensive, this proposed methodology overcomes this drawback. The approach constitutes a significant easy-to-use step forward in the development of comprehensive systems-scale techniques for the design of structural components of irrigation-water-delivery systems.     

Prospects for Traditional Jute Products

Abstract

The world jute production has been decreasing since the beginning of the 80s and is still declining. In such a situation it is necessary to reconsider the future prospects of the industry focusing especially on traditional jute products-sacks and bags, which production comprises 90% or more of the industry's current output.

In looking at future prospects it is usually a good idea to learn from the past. So the article will give a brief illustration of the past and present situation for the jute industry and traditional jute products.