Comparison between Irrigation Payment Systems and Probability of Using Water Saving Technology

Abstract

This study attempts to answer two questions: Why have different payment systems for high yielding variety of Boro paddy irrigation emerged in Bangladesh? Why do some farmers apply water saving technology? Thirty shallow tubewell owner farmers and 180 user farmers were selected from two areas in Bangladesh to get representative samples of this study. Descriptive statistics and coefficient of variation analysis were used to address the first question, while an econometric probit model is used to determine the factors, which influenced the adoption of water saving technology. The results show that users in the poor and high-risk area prefer crop share. The average pay for irrigation is higher in the crop share system, thus the water selling business is more profitable in crop share system. The water saving technology is used more in the cash payment system. The probit model's results show that the adoption of this technology increases with an increase in the number of users, owners' education, cash payment system, farm size and households' income, which is logical. Likewise shallow tubewell's (STW) income, area under STW, involvement of other occupation except agriculture and irrigated area of own farm exert a negative effect on use of water saving technology. There is no universally accepted optimal payment system because systems develop and change due to mainly economic circumstances, in addition to long run localized social factors which should not to be ignored. But, the crop share system is under attack due to rising output prices and the fact that it does not provide strong incentives for water saving.

Keywords: Boro paddy, irrigation, crop share and cash payment systems, water saving technology