Urfels Anton, McDonald Andrew J, Krupnik Timothy J, van Oel Pieter R
Sustainable Intensification Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, South Asia Regional Office, Kathmandu, Nepal.
School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Soil and Crop Sciences Section, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Water Int. 2020 Feb 3;45(1):39-59. doi: 10.1080/02508060.2019.1708172. eCollection 2020.
Most rice farmers in Nepal's Terai region do not fully utilize irrigation during breaks in monsoon rainfall. This leads to yield losses despite abundant groundwater resources and ongoing expansion of diesel pumps and tubewell infrastructure. We investigate this puzzle by characterizing delay factors governing tubewell irrigation across wealth and precipitation gradients. After the decision to irrigate, different factors delay irrigation by roughly one week. While more sustainable and inexpensive energy for pumping may eventually catalyze transformative change, we identify near-term interventions that may increase rice farmers' resilience to water stress in smallholder-dominated farming communities based on prevailing types of irrigation infrastructure.
尼泊尔特赖地区的大多数稻农在季风降雨间歇期并未充分利用灌溉资源。尽管当地地下水资源丰富，且柴油泵和管井基础设施不断增加，但这仍导致了产量损失。我们通过描述影响管井灌溉的延迟因素（涵盖财富和降水梯度）来探究这一谜题。在做出灌溉决定后，不同因素会使灌溉延迟约一周时间。虽然更可持续且成本更低的抽水能源最终可能会引发变革性变化，但我们基于现有的灌溉基础设施类型，确定了一些近期干预措施，这些措施可能会增强以小农户为主的农业社区中稻农应对水分胁迫的能力。
