Ever increasing fuel price and unreliable electricity supply hamper irrigated crop production in Bangladesh. Solar\npump may be an alternative to the electric motor operated pumps for irrigated crop production in the country, especially for the\noff-grid rural areas. This paper presents the technical and economic suitability of solar pump irrigations of rice and non-rice\n(upland) crop productions in Bangladesh. Four solar pumps (submersible type, 1,050 Wp) were installed in different locations\nfor irrigating rice, wheat and vegetables. The solar pumps were used for drip irrigation and furrow irrigation for cultivation of\nbrinjal and tomato during the winter seasons of 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. There were no significant differences\nof yields of brinjal between drip and furrow irrigations in the year 2010-2011 in Gazipur and during 2011-2012 in Jamalpur.\nBut in 2012-2013, significantly higher yield of brinjal was obtained from drip irrigated plots (43.9 t/ha) compared to the furrow\nirrigated plots (38.6 t/ha). There was no significant difference between drip and furrow irrigation methods in Jamalpur in\nterms of tomato yield. Significantly higher yields of tomato were recorded in Gazipur from drip irrigated plots than those of\nfurrow irrigated plots in both the year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Water savings by drip irrigation over furrow irrigation for\nbrinjal and tomato were 53.3% and 56.2%, respectively. The yield of summer tomato was 33.7 t/ha in drip irrigated plot while\n31.9 t/ha in furrow irrigated plot during 2011-2012. Water requirements of summer tomato in drip and furrow irrigation\nmethods were 225 mm and 429 mm, respectively. For cultivation of wheat about 430 mm water was required and the yield\nwas 3.0 t/ha. Boro rice was cultivated in Magura and Barisal during 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. During the cropping season\ntotal water requirement for boro rice cultivation was 1,024 mm in Magura and 1,481 mm in Barisal. Use of solar pumps was\nfound economical for wheat (BCR 2.31), tomato (BCR 2.22) and brinjal (BCR 2.34) production, but not for boro rice (BCR\n0.31). Being an environmentally sound and green technology solar pumps can be promoted for the cultivation of non-rice\ncrops.
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