potentiality of manual pump irrigation in jessore region

Ann. Bangladesh Agnc.

2Q) :

105- 1 12, 1992

POTENTIALITY OF MANUAL PUMP IRRIGATION IN JESSORE REGION

M.S. fslam, M. A. R. Akanda, M. H. Rashid

and M. I. llossain

I rri g atio n and W ater hf ana g eme nt D

ivi

s io n

B an glade sh A gri c ult ur al R e s e ar c h I nstitut e Gazipur- I 70 1, Bangladesh

Abstract

Manual pumps namely, Treadle, Rower and No. 6 lland

pumps

were

demonstrated

to the farmers of

Jessore

district.

Intcrestecl small

farmers from Bhatpara and Bagharpara were provided with

thcse

pumps to irrigate wheat, watcrmclofi and w,intcr

vegetables. Technical

assistance for installation, operation and maintenance of

^pumps,

construction of field

channels,

w'ater dclivcry to diffcrent crops,

etc.

were provided to them.

Most of the farmers were

adequately

bencfited using thcsc

pumps.

Tubewellwise

benefit cost ratio was obtaincd as high as 3.42 on full cmt basis Out of three types of pumps, most farmers nere

interested

in Treadle pump for its

considerable discharge, ease

in operation

and

less possibility of pilferage. The potentiality of manual pump irrigation was accepted by the famers. Neighbouring farmers ryere also

very much interested to use the technology in their own ficlds.

But the economic insolvency of the poor farmers makes

them

unable to afford the initial cost of a tubcwell. It has becn,

thcrefore, suggested

that

^loans

(preferably in kind) to be provided to them for

^the

initial

cost of the tubewells.

Key words.' Suction lift, Non-returning valve, Surge-chamber, Soil texture.

Introduction

In

Bangladesh, the

poor, illiterate

farmers cannot

afford

the

high initial

and maintenance costs

of power

operated

irrigation

appliances

like

deep

tubewell, shallow tubewell

and

low lift

^pump.

As

a result, they have

to

depend on

rainfall or to

^go

for

pulses and oilseed crops

if

no other

source

of water is available.

Many

organizations have tested different

manual pumps available

within

the country but all these

tests were laboratory based.

Encouraging comments

in

favour

of

these pumps have been

made in these test reports that need to

be verified at field conditions.

At the

Bangladesh

Agricultural

Research Institute, 6

different

manual pumps were tested and

it

was

found

that at a suction

lift of

3.7 m, the diaphragm

pump

(other than

BRRI

pump) produced the highest discharge

of

51 .7A

\/min

(Islam et a\.,1981).

Spare and Wiens (1981)

reported

that the average output

of

the

Rower pump

was about

46 l/min which was almost similar to

ttrat obtained by Islam and others.

On

et

al.

(1991) reported that ttre output

of

a Treadle pump

^wzls

higher ttran any

other

manual

prlrnp rryto lifts of 3.5 m. They

also

furd

that the pump could irrigate comfortably aboul

0.4f

^ha

of

wheat

or

vegetables and one- third

of

this of rice.

There exists a communication gap between the researchers and the

end

users. Even where

sritable designs e.re available,

commercial manufacturers are rarely interested in produc in g

them since the

demand

is still

uncertain. So, demonstration

of

these pumps is very essential to test their performance at farmers field level.

Therefore, this study was conducted

at

Jessore for conserutive three years by Bangladesh Agricultural Research

Institute under the

financial

support

from IDA-Z,1455-

BD credit through Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, aiming at

demonstrating

three suction type manual pumps for their

comparative performance

at field level

and to popularize them to the farmers.

Materials and Methods

Three different manual pumps

namely Treadle,

Rower

and

No. 6

Hand pumps were demonstrated at Bhatpara and Bagharpara under Jessore district. The specifications of the pumps are discussed here in brief.

No.6

lwnd pump

The diameters of the pump cylinder and the water chamber above

it

are,

respectively,10.2

cm and 12.7 cm.

A

piston, connecting

a75

cm

long

operating

lever

moves

up

and

down into the cylinder. The inlet at the pump

base is threaded to cbnnect 3.8 cm diameter pipe. The

plunger carries a non-returning valve and

a leather

u

plastic bucket.

Rowrer

pwp

The cylinder of the pump is a 5.1

cm diameterPVC pipe inclined at an angle of 30" to the

hmizsrtal. A

piston rod connects a bucket at

orrc end provides a

T-shaped

handle at

the

other.

A

surge chamber is provided

to

maintain steadier upward

flow of

water

in the

3.81 cm diameter ground pipe.

Treadle pump

The pump is

operated

by a bamboo or

wooden structure.

It

consists

of two

cylinders attached side

by

side

to form a twin

cylinder.

Thus, the pump is also known as 'Twin

Treadle'. The cylinders have a common ground suction pipe and a discharge line. Each

cylinder

has diameter, 89 mm and length, 300 mm. The plungers move up and down

into

the cylinders by rope and

pully

mechanism.

Usually

the farmers

of

ttrese sites used to leave

their

lands

fallow in dry

period

or to

go

for

oilseeds and pulses

without irrigation.

The static groundwater

level of

the sites

(from

the records), was found to

lie within

4.5 m even in the driestperiod which indicates that the manual pumps could be used successfully.

Farmers, selected

from

the sites- Bhatpara and Bagharpara were provided

with all

sort

of

technical assistance

on installation,

operation, repairand maintenance of pumps and tubewells,

channel consffuction, irrigation

application techniques etc.

to cultivate

wheat, watermelon

and other winter

vegetables.

The following

criteria were the basis of farmer selection:

a)

There should have no

irrigation facility

in the sites,

b)

^Farmers

should

have interest pump irrigation,

c) Only the small

and marginal selected, and

in

manual farmers be

d) Selected farmers must follow

the instructions for manual pump irrigation.

The mechanical analysis for

^textural

classification of the soils collected from

the selected

sites was done in the laboratory of Analytical

Service

Division, BARI.

Crops were irrigated either on the basis

of

growth stages

or

I

on the basis of definite intervals; such

that, wheat was irrigated at crown root

initiation

(15- 20 days after germination), maximum

tillering

(30-35 days after germination), booring (50-55 days after germination) and

milking

(85-90 days

after germination) stages but

cabbage was irrigated 4-5 days interval

with

small amount at the

initial

stage (0-30 days after transplantation) and 7-8 days interval

with

higher amount in the subsequent period based on soil texture.

The irrigable

area under each

pump

was calculated

for

wheat, waterrnelon, cabbage and potato based on

field

discharges

of

the pumps,

the

seasonal

water

requirement

of crops,

the number

of pump

operating days

in

a

week

(6

days in a week) and the duration of

^pump

operation

per

season (based

on length of

the crop season).

An economic

analysis

was done to test

the

feasibility

of manual pump irrigation at farmers'

fields

level

by

calculating the benefit cost ratio

of individual

pump. _{The cost}

daa

involved the

purchase, installation, operation

and

maintenance costs of the selected

pumps

logether with the crop production cost.

The

operation cost involved the cost of

labour

required to operate the pumps and

the maintenance

cost

comprised the cost

of

spare

parts together with the fitting and fixing

charges.

The crop production cost like

land

preparation cosL

seed,

manure and fertilizer

costs, insecticide and pesticide

costs,

intercultural

operation cost etc. were collected

for individual

crop.

The benefit

was obtained

from

the

yield df different

crops

grown

under each pump and their prices.

Table 1.

Comparison of pump discharges in laboratory and in field.

r07 The benefit cost

ratio

was calculated both

on

cash and

full

cost basis.

The

depreciation and interest _on investment were obtained using

straight line method. The depreciation

was

calculated using the following

equation (Michael, 1981):

Depreciation,D=@-SlL

Where, P = Initial cost of the system, S= Salvage value (10 7o of P) and

[;

^{Life the} tubewell (5 years) Interest on investment was obtained from the following relationship (Sing, 1977):

Interest on Investmenr,I=[ (P+S)

2

]x

i

'Where,

i = Bank interest ^rate, (15 Vo)

A

sample calculation for benefit cost ratio

is

given in Appendix-I.

Results

and

Discussion

In

each site,

all

the three types

of

pumps were

installed so that the

farmers

could

have acquainted

with all

these

types

as

well

as to identify the suitable one.

It was found that the discharge of

^the

Treadle pump was the highest at the

^same

operating suction

lift

followed by Rower pump.

Almost

no change was found

in

discharge

of

a

particular

type

of pump

over three years. But,

some variation was observed between

the laboratory test and

field

test (Table 1).

Depth of watcr

appliecl

(Tablc 2) for

a particular crop was found different

for different

sites because

of the variation in soil

texture

(silty clay loam at

Bhalpara and

clay loam

at

Bagharpara) and time of operation of

the pumps.

Table 2 also

shows

that the

depth

of water applied to

some

crop was very low

in

Type

of

pump Ooeratins

helad

(m)"

^Field (1/min)^discharse Laboratory discharge

(l/min)

Treadle Rower No. 6 H.P.

2.t04.70 2.004.72 3.004.00

51.80-28.24 49.20-34.20 34.20-20.20

63.00-30.00 60.00-57.00 42.80-31.00

Tabh 2.

^{Range of} depth

of

urater applied to crops.

Depth of water applied (mm) Croe

t986-87 1987-88 1988-89

Whed Gznct*n)

*rmehn

Crq Yield)

Cege

(Atlas) Fotato (Cmdinal)

105.5-215.0

69.4-215.5

152.0-23s.0

t08.5-222.0

63.5-181.9

59.6-256.7

t38.7-2t4.2 ttt.4-217.0

150.6-268.0

127.0-235.5

152.2-225.4

162.2-235.0 comparison

to the

seasonal requirement. For

example, cabbage requires about 200-300 mm seasonal water

in

Bangladesh context but some

farmers applied only

138.7

mm in a

season.

This was due to insufficient pump operation Lry

some farmers

who did not strictly follow

the

instruction given by the

concerned scientific personnel.

Table 3. Irigable

^area calculated (ha), based on field discharge.

Crop Treadle Pump Rower Pump No. 6 Hand Pump

Wheat (Kanchan) Watermelon (Top

Yield)

Cabbage (Atlas) Potato

(Cardinal)

0.40 0.42 4.43 0.48

0.36 0.38 0.40 4.46

4.24 0.27 4.29 0.33 Table

3

shows ttre

inigable

area calculated

based on the

field

discharge

of

different pumps

for wheat, watermelon,

cabbage

and

potato

which gives

an idea about the

maximum

area

that can be irrigated successfully by

a

particular pump. For

instance,

in

Bangladesh

climate,

around

300 mm

water

in a

¹²⁰ days

growing period is required for wheat.

The

irrigation is usually

stopped

20 days

before harvest.

Considering 6 operating days in

^a

week and

6

hours' operation

per day for

each pump, the number

of irrigation

days comes to about 84. Treadle pump gives

40

Um

flow

rate on an average at

field

condition. Therefore, the

Table 4.

Repair and maintenance cost (Tk.) of pumps.

Pump 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 Total

Bucket

I

^NuB &Bolts I ^{Others Bucket}

I

^{Mrts & Ilolrs}

I

^{Orhcrs Bucket}

I

Nur & Bolts I ^Others

Treadle

20.00

Rm,er

^10.00

No. 6

HP

l0.m

10.00

10.00

20.00 10.00 20.m

10.00

10.00

3.00 118.00

40.00 80.00

10.00 30.00

15.00 20.m

20.m

^10.00

I

total volume

of

water needed to apply

is

84

x

6

x

⁶⁰

x 40 I or

1209.6 m3. Since rhe seasonal water requirement

of

wheat

is 3([

^mm

or

0.30

m,

the

irrigable

area

of

^wheat

is

calculated as

0.40 ha l=1209.61 (0.30 x

^10.000)1.

It

^is

assumed

tliat

the convbyance loss is nilbccause

the channel length is usually very short for

manual

pump irrigation

and the

distribution

is nearly

uniform for small

sized plots. Since the

discharge of Treadle pump was found

the highest

at field level,

the area covered

by

the

pump was also found the highest for

the individual crop.

Repair and maintenance cost was found the highest

(Tk.

118.00)

for

Treadle pump

in

rhree years

and the lowest (Tk. 40.00) for

Rower

pump. The

components

required to

change

during

ttre study

period

_{are shown}

in

Table

4.

The installation cost

of

a 30.50 m rubewell

for Treadle, Rower and No. 6 Hand pumps

are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Initial

cost

(lk.)

of a tubewell for 30 m depth.

Pump Type Pump Head

cost

PVC pipe and sffarner cost

Installation

cost Total

cost Treadle Pump

Rower Pump No. 6 Hand Pump

350.0 450.0 600.0

1600.0 1600.0 1600.0

300.0 300.0 300.0

2254.0 2350.0 2500.0

The cost

effectiveness ^.

found out by

calculating

of the pumps

were

pumpwise

benefit

cost

ratios-both

on

cash

and full

costs basis (Table 6).

Table 6.

Pumpwise benefit costratio (BCR).

r98687

1987-88 1988-89

Cash cost basis

Full

cost basis

Cash cost basis

Full cost basis

Cash

cost Full

cost

basis

^basis

BRr BRz BR:

BR+

BRs BRo BTt BTz BT:

BT+

BHz

crt

CTz

crg cr+

crs cro crs crt

crg crto cHt cHz

cHg

2.95 2.54 2.97 4.07_

3.88 3.00

t.r:

5.m

2.75 7.20 0.80 1.60

t,33 1.68 1.73

,.t1

2.65

,.r:

r.25

3.30 L15 2.30 0.50 1.00

3.10 3.52 2.31 2.36 3.38 2.08 3.89 2.79 2.88 2.41 1.57 3.59 3.61 2.21 3.62 3.70 2.20 1.22

2.ffi t.24 2.51 1.33 2.13

r.69 1.96 1.65

t.t2 r.69 1.57 1.65 1.75 1.01 1.65 0.77 1.36 2.29 t.@

1.85 2.03 1.13 0.82 1.80 1.04 2.62 0.79 r.07

4.50 5.54 5.00 6.40 4.09 1.05 2,02 0.82 3,gl t.52 3.68 2.88 3.63 4.72 2.44 3.88 3.r9 3.37 3.W 2.29 3.06 3.34 2.76 t.4t

2.81 2.75 2.95 3.40 2.95 0.68 1.46 0.61 2,76 1.15 2.55 1..62

2.4t 3.42 1.49 2.83 1.85 2.57 2.10 1.84 2.36 2.13 1.67 1.18

4.At o.oa

i

\

N.B "-"

sign indicates no pump

installatiofl, "B"

stands

for

Bhatpara site,

"C" for

Bagharpara site,

"R"

for Rower Pump,

"T"

for Treadle Pump

&

"C" for No. 6 Hand Pump.

It is

seen that, the highest benefit cost ratio

on frrll cost basis was found to be 3.42 for Treadle pump in the year 1988-89 and

the Iowest 0.50

for

the same type

in

1986-87. The reason

for

such

low

benefit cost

ratio in

1986- 87 was the natural hazards.

The

highest

benefit cost ratios of

^Rower

and No.

6 Hand pumps on

full

cost basis were

found to be'3.40 and2.55,

respectively,

in

the year _1988-89. However, the lowest values were obtained as 0.68

in

1988-89 and 0.08

in

1986-

87 for RoWer and No. 6 Hand

^pumps,

respectively.

A

questionnaire survey

of

100 farmers was made for their choice of the selected pumps. Out

of a number of questions, the main two

regarding the choice of the pumps

for

small and marginal farmers were:

i)

Do you

like

to irrigate wheat, watermelon, cabbage, potato and other

winter

vegetables by manual pumps?

ii) Which of

the selected three pumps do

you like to

use

for such irrigation and why? Eighty

farmers passed

their comments'in favour of

Treadle

pump,

17

in favour of Rower pump

and

3 in

favour

of No.

6 Hand pump. Table 7 shows the choice in percentage of the farmers surveyed

for having their opinions regarding the

manual pump irrigations.

From this evaluation study it was

found

that most of the farmers were

interested

in Treadle pump because of its

sufficient discharge, improved operating mechanism and

Table 7. Choice of the farmers for

^the

selected pumps.

Crops to be irrigated

Percentage of

farmers in favour

less

possibility of

pilferage.

The Rower

pump

caused muscle sffain requiring the

highest

energy as it was operated by pulling

and pushing action.

This

was

in

consistent

with

the

result

obtained

by Haq et. al. (1989). No.

6

Iland

pump produced the least discharge and

it

had possibility _of pilferage from fields. Farmers were quite reluctant to use this pump.

Conclusions

Before the introduction of manual pumps, a

very few farmers used to grow potato

and

watermelon by bringing water from

distant ponds

incurring higher labour

cost.

But,

after

the introduction of

manual

pump

technology,

the farmers were able to grow

^wheat,

watermelon, cabbage, radish, potato etc. using pumped water.

The study shows that farmers

were

substantially benefited using manual

pumps, specially, Treadle and Rower pumps

for

small

scale irigation. Most of the farmers

were interested

in using Treadle pumps. But,

the poor farmers are unable to bear the

initial

cost

of

a tubewell. Therefore, they should be provided

with loans (preferably in kind) for the initial

cost of tubewells. The loan to be reimbursed by

suitable instalments. However, this

study

reveals that Treadle and Rower pumps

have

high potentiality for small

scale

irrigation

in

Jessore region. Similar demonstrations

are needed

in different locations of the

country,

where, the farmers are not acquainted with improved mdnual pumps and the

static groundwater

level is

permissible

to

the use

of

these pumps.

References

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

1989.

Yearbook

of Agricultural Statistics of

Bangladesh.

Pump

t,"e

Treadle

Rower

wheat, watermelon, and winter vegetables

wheat, watermelon, and winter vegetables

17

No.6HP

wheat,watermelon, and wintervegetables

I

Haq,

M. M.;

S.

M. M. M. A.

^Baqui;

ai+

,,:,.. ..f. A. kq; ttt. A.T:rrni

and

M. H. K.

Khandoker.

1989. Determination and

Identification of

^Ergonomic

Characeristics of Different Manually Operatedhmps

^{md PumPing}

kvices Widely Used by the

Farmers.

Final

Report, Agricultural

Engineering Division, BRRI, JoydebPug, GaziPur.

fskm, M.S.; M. A. Mazed and K.C.

RoY:

1981. Comparative

Perforrnances

of Different Types of Mantlal

Pumps.

AMA, Vol. XII,

No.

3.Irya4-

Michael, A.M.

^{and T.P.}

Ojha.

^{1981. Principles}

of Agpicultural'Engineering. Vol. l.

Jain Brothers, New Delhi.

lll

Orr, Alasaic AS.M. Namrl

^Islam and Gunnar

Barnes. 199L. The Treadle

PumP.

!{anual Irrigation

for Small Farmers

in

Bangladesh. RDRS'

^Dhaka,

Bangladesh.

Singh, I. J. 1977. Elements of

^Farm

Management Economics. Affiliated

East-West Press

Pw. Ltd. New Delhi-

Madras,India.

Spare, D. and Greg Wiens. 1981. Field Performances of Rower

^PumPs.

Mennonite Central Committee. Dhaka, Bangladesh.