Farmers' adaptations to water scarcity in rainfed and partially irrigated areas in the dry zone of Myanmar | |
| Author | Aye Sandar Phyo |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-14-04 |
| Subject(s) | Water scarcity--Myanmar Dry farming--Myanmar |
| Note | 135 p. : ill. |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. RD-14-04 |
| Abstract | The research assessed the farmers’ adaptation strategies to water scarcity in rainfed and partially irrigated area in the dry zone of Myanmar. The objectives of the research were to know the farmer’s adaptations to cropping system, agronomic practices, and agricultural water utilization and analyze biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing adapt ations to cropping system, agronomic practices, and agricultural water utilization and to make recommendations for helping farmers to enhance their agricultural production and household income through adaptation strategies. The research was conducted in t he rainfed village and partially irrigated village located in Meikhtila Township of Myanmar by using a survey questionnaire as a main data collection tool for 117 respondents. Besides, field observation, key informants interview and farmers’ focus group di scussion were also used as the other data collection tools. The research was focused on quantitative analysis but qualitative analysis was also applied. The findings of the research indicated that farmers in rainfed village increased the area of less wate r requiring crops to confront water scarcity and changed their crop varieties into short lived ones. Although farmers in partially irrigated village switched over from less water requiring to more water requiring crops due to availability of water starting from last 10 years, they trie d to minimize the use of water by changing long life span local varieties into relatively shorter life span ones in order to reduce the water requirement period of growing crops. Moreover, they also tried to adjust their agron omic practices in order to adapt water shortage condition by increasing tillage during fallow period, changing crops’ sowing practices and use of manure for crop production. In case of agricultural water utilization, skip row water conservation measure was practiced in order to adapt the water scarcity. Traditional irrigation methods such as flood and furrow irrigation methods were employed to irrigate the rice farms in partially irrigated village. In rain fed village, farmers adapted with more soil conserv ation practices and, accordingly, they can do better in adaptation practices than farmers in partially irrigated village. The results revealed that farmers did adaptations based on their indigenous knowledge and the knowledge passed on to them by fellow f armers. The agricultural extension did not play any role in their adaptation. However, farmers in rain fed village and partially irrigated village deployed several adaptation practices based on knowledge sharing form farmers’ network, locational knowledge, market demands of the crops and irrigated water accessibility. Bivariate correlation analysis showed that farmers’ adoption on most of the adaptation practices in both areas were highly correlated with landholding size, household agricultural labor force size, percentage of upland, ownership of farm equipment, access to information of new varieties. Certain recommendations were made to develop the linkage between the department of agricultural research and extension and farmers to enhance the agricultura l production through farmer’s adaptations. Research and extension should be focused on promoting less water requiring crops, short lived varieties, water conservation methods, compost making and creating small reservoirs in order to make rain water harvest ing for rainfed village. For partially irrigated village, it should be considered on promoting high yielding and short lived varieties, recommended spacing and sowing methods, effective irrigation methods, community level irrigation water management to be able to use for all types of crops rather than rice only. |
| Year | 2014 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. RD-14-04 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Thapa, Gopal. B., |
| Examination Committee(s) | Soparth Pongquan, Routray, Jayant K. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2014 |