Bangladesh fires up large-scale solar to boost power generation

Syful Islam 

 

DHAKA, Nov 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The government of Bangladesh has approved construction of a large-scale solar park as part of a push to increase the share of power from renewable sources in this electricity-starved country. 

The new solar park, which is due to begin generating within the next 18 months, will supply up to 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid. 

Sun Edison Energy Holding (Singapore) Pte Ltd will build the park in Teknaf sub-district, the southernmost point in mainland Bangladesh. 

The solar power will be cheaper than electricity from conventional power stations. The tariff rate has been fixed at Tk 13.26 per kilowatt/hour ($0.17), two-thirds the price of electricity generated by oil-fuelled plants.

Teknaf is one of several large projects in the pipeline as the government aims to reach a target of 2,000 MW, or 10 percent of overall capacity, generated from renewable sources by 2020. 

Current daily grid generation is 7,000 MW, against a peak demand of 8,500 MW, although the actual need is certainly higher since only 62 percent of the population have access to electricity through the grid. 

The government plans to increase installed capacity to 20,000 MW by the end of the decade. Ahmad Kaikaus, an official at the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources, said in an interview that the government hopes that 500-600 MW of this will be generated by public-sector solar power plants.

"We have asked public-sector power companies to set up equipment for generating electricity from solar," Kaikaus said. "They are carrying out feasibility studies." 

Kaikaus said that in addition, scores of local and foreign private-sector companies are submitting preliminary proposals to invest in solar power generation, with projects ranging in size from 5-100 MW, and the government is so far considering 14 of these. 

Taposh Kumar Roy, chairman of the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA), identified a shortage of uncultivated land in this densely populated country as a significant constraint to planning large-scale solar plants. 

"Large-sized solar power plants need a huge area of land to install solar panels. In Bangladesh such barren field is hardly available. Our policy is to set up such plants only in non-agriculture lands to keep food production unhampered," he said. 

Among the places solar panels could be placed is on rooftops of residential, commercial and industrial buildings, he said. 

At present, renewables account for 405 MW, or around 5.7 percent, of Bangladesh's total daily electricity generation. 

This includes 150 MW from solar home systems, and 11 MW from rooftop systems. A further 230 MW are generated by hydropower. 

The government also is collecting data on wind power potential from 13 locations, he said. 

COST OF THE CHANGE

 

According to Roy, some $2.76 billion will be required to implement both large- and small-scale solar projects in the country, of which $2.23 billion is expected to come from development partners, with the rest from government and the private sector. 

Ruhul Quddus, a World Bank consultant on solar home systems in Bangladesh, said renewable energy has become cost-effective as technology constantly improves. 

Quddus said an investment of around $1 billion by the state-owned Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL) has enabled the installation of some 3.7 million solar home systems since 2009, as well as solar-powered irrigation pumps and mini-grids. 

The home systems have eliminated the need for 180,000 tonnes of kerosene fuel, saving an estimated $225 million annually, he said. 

According to IDCOL, more than 65,000 solar home systems are now being installed each month. The company aims to finance 6 million systems by 2017, increasing the estimated generation capacity from the systems to 220 MW. 

Quddus said there also are about 1.4 million diesel-fuelled irrigation pumps in Bangladesh which could instead run on solar energy. 

SREDA's Roy said most of the ongoing renewable energy projects in Bangladesh are financed by donors, with the funds managed and distributed by IDCOL. 

"Since solar projects need big investment, we can't take those from our own resources," he said. 

The government is exploring the possibility of getting money for projects from the Green Climate Fund, Roy said. 

Dipal C. Barua, president of Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association, is optimistic that the government's 10 percent target can be met through public-private partnerships. 

Barua said large-scale renewable projects had not been implemented successfully in the past because of insufficient attention from the government, including a lack of feasibility studies and the absence of a tariff policy. 

The government is now preparing a tariff policy to procure electricity from big renewable power grids, and this will encourage the private sector to invest, Barua added.

Boat schools bring classroom to Bangladesh's flood-hit children

By Syful Islam

Mon Mar 9, 2015 6:20am EDT

DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Anna Akter, a nine-year-old student at a floating school in Bangladesh's remote Natore district, says she might have missed out on her education during annual monsoon floods without her boat-based classroom.

The same goes for Khushi Khatun, who also studies at the boat school where she gets free tuition and materials.

“Had there been no such school, she would have had to walk two kilometers along a muddy path or take a boat journey during monsoon which may have discouraged her to study,” said her father Nazir Uddin, a farmer in Pangasia village.

Hundreds of students in the northern Bangladesh district are taught in floating schools, an initiative to make education available to children whose lives are complicated by regular flooding.

“Instead of the students going to school, the school reaches them,” said Mohammed Rezwan, founder of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, the non-profit organization that introduced the country’s first floating school system.

It also trains farmers to grow vegetables in floating gardens and raise ducks and fish, as well as offering free farm inputs.

The boat schools are the kind of measure that can help education in developing nations like Bangladesh become more resilient to extreme weather and worsening climate impacts.

Governments meeting in Japan from March 14-18 to adopt a new action plan to reduce the risk of disasters are expected to call for better ways to protect education before, during and after crises.

FROM BUS TO CLASS

Rezwan, an architect, was born and brought up in Natore district. He was lucky as he didn’t miss school in the rainy season thanks to his family’s boat, unlike many of his friends.

“From school age, I thought there must be a solution to this problem,” Rezwan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone from his office in Natore.

While at university, it occurred to him that if children couldn’t make it to school, their classroom should go to them.

Rezwan established Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha in 1998 with $500 from his savings and scholarship money, and the floating school concept was launched in 2002.

The boats first serve as school bus, collecting children from different riverside stops. Once they have docked, class begins.

Rezwan’s organization now has 22 wooden boats, each able to accommodate 30 students. The boats have a classroom, a library and internet-connected computers powered by onboard solar panels.

Each year, much of the Bangladesh countryside is hit by flooding, forcing schools to close, Rezwan said. In 2007, for example, some 1.5 million students were estimated to have been affected by floods, he noted.

Around two thirds of the country’s 160 million people live in rural areas. During a normal rainy season, over a fifth of the country’s land is submerged, while in extreme years, up to two thirds can be inundated.

As climate change impacts become visible, disasters caused by extreme weather, including floods and storms, are increasingly hitting the low-lying nation, Rezwan said. Sea-level rise could exacerbate the situation in coastal areas in the coming years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted.

IDEA SPREADS

The floating schools cover an area of 2 square km, offering primary level education to local children who might otherwise have stayed away from school.

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha now also trains adult villagers on children’s and women’s rights, nutrition, health and hygiene, and how to farm ducks and fish alongside vegetables in “floating gardens”, helping them adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Some other flood-prone countries, including Cambodia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Vietnam and Zambia, have introduced floating schools, following Rezwan’s model.

Nazma Khatun, a teacher at the Natore boat school, said the nearest government primary school, located some 2 km away, could not be reached by students from her area during seasonal flooding.

“The floating school has brought many benefits,” she said. “The students can easily go to school and stay close to their parents. The literacy rate is growing here,” she added.

Her daughter also attended the floating school and is now studying at secondary level nearby. It has changed Khatun’s life for the better, too.

“After I got married, I stayed at home as a housewife,” she said. “Now I am teaching in this school alongside pursuing my graduate studies.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-disaster-risk-education-idUSKBN0M50RP20150309

Noakhali farmers now produce great grass instead of food crops

03 January, 2015

Syful Islam (RTNN): Many farmers in Nokhali district have started producing great grass (hogla pata) instead of cultivating food crops in some lands as part of their effort to get adapted to the impacts of climate change.

They said cultivating great grass in salinity-affected and water-logged lands is possible while other crops can hardly grow there.

The increased salinity in soil, nearly six months long water-logging each year, and lack of irrigation facility had put the farmers in Ramharitalu village of Noakhali Sadar upzila in immense difficulties with farming. In many lands of this area even the stress-tolerant rice varieties are not suitable for cultivation.

The salinity and water-logging in lands had increased in the recent years as the impacts of climate change have started to be more visible. Noakhali, a South Eastern Bangladeshi district, represents an extensive flat, coastal and delta land, located in tidal flood plain of the Meghna river delta. Climate change-induced disastrous events often hit the district and seawater frequently enters the land.

Once the farmers of the village had been producing a handsome volume of rice and other food crops, which is badly affected in the recent years. So, the farmers have turned to producing great grass as it can tolerate stresses.

Earlier, great grass was being produced in these lands naturally and poor people of the village produced different household items with those as an extra income. Since salinity and water-logging have affected rice and other food crop production there, farmers have started to produce great grass as main crop as this can withstand stresses.

Nearly ten years back Abul Bashar of Ramharitalu village started great grass business. He collected great grass from the locality and sold the same at nearby Khalifar hat and Rab market.

He established a small cottage farm five years back and appointed scores of workers, mainly women, to prepare different types of household products from great grass.

Mr Bashar now sells those products even in capital city of Dhaka among the owners of different handicraft shops. Being encouraged by Bashar’s success some 12,000 men and women of Nokhali Sadar upzila now produce eye-catching household items and sell those at nearest markets and other towns.

Bashar said producing food crops in the saline-affected and water-logged lands was not profitable and “we had been losing crops frequently”. “As a result we had no option but to find out a stress-tolerant crop and we found cultivating great grass to be a suitable option.”

“Cultivation of great grass has brought financial solvency to many farmers in Noakhali district,” said Mr Bashar.

Nurul Alam Masud, chief executive of Noakhali based Participatory Research Action Network (PRAN), said great grass is a water-borne tree which once grew naturally near the rivers and seashores.

“Nowadays farmers cultivate great grass commercially and its farming is expanding fast in Noakhali district. You don’t need to take care of great grass a lot and no fertilisers nor pesticides are needed for its cultivation,” he said adding presently more and more new lands are coming under great grass farming as farmers get good return from it.

Mr Masud said with impacts of climate change having started putting adverse effects, farmers themselves are finding out ways to get adapted with the changed situation.

http://www.english.rtnn.net//newsdetail/detail/1/4/60815#.VKjUXih0io4

Northern dist. farmers prefer mango farming to paddy

01 January, 2015

Syful Islam (RTNN): With water level continuously going down many farmers in country’s north-eastern districts nowadays prefer growing mango to paddy, posing a threat to food security.

The impacts of climate change are causing droughts in several north-eastern districts leading to a significant fall of water level. At the same time, the average rainfall in those districts nowadays has also reduced significantly creating water shortage which hampers rice cultivation.

Statistics collected from Hardinge Bridge area shows that during the last twenty years water levels at the river during rainy season were between 17 and 20 metres and in summer between 7 and 10 metres. The low water flow from upstream has caused riverbeds to be filled up with excessive sediments creating massive water crisis during rainy season.

Farmers of these drought-prone districts say they need to depend on irrigation to grow rice which becomes much costlier and minimises return. As a result farmers of a large area of the district are now growing mango in paddy fields finding it more profitable than rice cultivation.

Officials at department of agriculture said the volume of arable lands in Rajshahi district has come down to 185,666 hectares in 2013 from 202,803 hectares in 2010. The rest 14,000 hectares of land is now being used in mango farming.

They also said the diversion of farmers to mango farming from rice or wheat cultivation is posing threat to food security of the area. Farmers of the area had produced 672,337 tonnes of rice in 2010 which in 2013 came down to 598,435 tonnes.

In Bholahat union under Chapainawabaganj district some 30 to 35 per cent lands have now come under mango farming instead of paddy or wheat. A number of researchers of Rajshahi University found that during the drought season farmers need to depend on irrigation to produce rice. As a result the cost of rice production goes significantly up which led their diversion to mango from rice production.

Akbar Mia, a mango farmer in Bholahat union, said water scarcity has pushed them towards mango farming.

“We sometimes see that rice and other crops wither before maturity due to water shortage. So, we switched to mango production from paddy getting no other options,” he said.

At the same time mango farming is also increasing in Charghat and Godagari upzilas under Rajshahi district. As a result livelihood of several thousands of day-labourers in those areas is under threat as mango farming needs less manpower.

The area is under Barind Tract which is the largest Pleistocene era physiographic unit in Bangladesh and the Bengal Basin. Officials said water level in the Barind Tract has gone down by 15 feet in last ten years.

In Bangladesh farming with deep tube well water had started in 1960s which in Barind Tract began in 2012. According to a report of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority some 14,620 deep tube wells were installed in the area. The excessive water extraction through these tube wells has caused fall in water level.

Senior Scientific Officer of Mango Research Centre, Rajshahi Alim Uddin acknowledged rise of mango farming each year as it costs lower than cultivating other crops there.

He said mango is a very important agricultural item in this region. “Farmers find mango cultivation more profitable than other crops since mango farming needs less volume of water, pesticides, and nurturing.”

Chief Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Shajahan Kabir said mango farming is rising in high drought-prone areas since cultivation of rice and other crops is not suitable there.

He said BRRI has recently introduced three drought-tolerant rice varieties to encourage farmers in drought-prone districts in rice production to keep food basket intact.

“We requested farmers to cultivate Aus varieties which need less irrigation than Boro rice,” he added.

http://www.english.rtnn.net//newsdetail/detail/1/3/60777#.VKjSIyh0io4

Crab farming in saline water instead of paddy

25 December, 2014

Syful Islam (RTNN): Farmers in Khulna and Satkhira districts nowadays produce crab in saline affected lands instead of other crops as those can hardly survive there due to excessive salt in soil.

Seawater frequently enters the lands of these districts because of increased number of flash floods and storm surges. The water remains in the lands for long raising their salt level to so much high that no crops can grow or survive there.

Failing to produce rice or other crops in those lands, years back farmers had started to cultivate shrimp there bringing water from sea. As seawater remained in the lands for several years due to shrimp cultivation, their salinity level now reached further high.

Aziz Tarafder, a crab farmer in Sonachar of Khulna district, said when shrimp is cultivated in one piece of land, salinity spreads to the nearest land and no crops can be produced there next year. So, the farmers find no other options but to cultivate shrimp or crab there.

He said shrimp and crab cultivation in these districts has expanded manifold in this way in the recent years causing a drastic fall in production of rice and other crops.

Mr Tarafder said reducing the salinity level of land to ready them for producing other crops is too much time consuming and very expensive. “So, the lands which come under shrimp cultivation once cannot be freed from producing the same.”

Another farmer, Jamal Uddin, said in the recent past farming crab in those saline affected lands was also found to be profitable. As a result nowadays farmers of these areas have started crab fattening in those lands instead of trying to produce paddy or other crops.

He said coastal farmers collect immature crabs from the nearest river and sea and keep those in the lands full of saline water for weeks. Those are being exported to different countries once they become matured. Both the demands and prices of these matured crabs are much high in those countries.

Mr Uddin said the production cost of crab is much lower than that of shrimp and almost no disease affects it. As a result farmers of the areas nowadays are increasingly growing crab instead of paddy.

“Many of us these days have started crab fattening business since it brings them a good return,” he added.

According to officials of department of fisheries presently, crab is being grown in some 4,000 farms in Khulna district, 350 farms in Satkhira district, and 340 farms in Bagerhat district. The handsome return from crab farming has brought solvency to many farmers in those districts.

They said crab farming is also bringing foreign currencies to the country alongside their local sales. A significant volume of crab, produced here, is being exported every year bringing the growers handsome return.

Agriculture officials said crab growing has brought a good area of lands under farming otherwise those would remain barren because of excessive salinity. Farmers should identify more adaptation measures in the face of growing impacts of climate change which in the coming days will bring more challenges for them, they added.

http://www.english.rtnn.net//newsdetail/detail/1/4/60720#.VJwAEcEA

Hanging, floating gardens help farmers grow vegetables

24 December, 2014

Syful Islam (RTNN) : Farmers in Bangladesh’s coastal districts nowadays grow vegetables in hanging and floating gardens as lands in many areas remain under water for nearly six months a year following sea level rise.

Water of nearest rivers, swell during the summer monsoon, flooding croplands, leaving poor farmers at bay, as they find no work nor can grow crops. During the period many coastal families have to strive to earn livelihood and many pass days without food.

Years back, it was a very common scenario in many coastal areas as the impacts of climate change including flash flood, cyclone, storm surge, water-logging, salinity, and drought had started to hit Bangladesh frequently. The sea level rise, as an impact of global warming, has caused river water to swell easily and drowns coastal areas almost every year.

Bangladesh, situated almost inside the belly of Bay of Bengal, is criss-crossed by more than 230 of the world’s most unstable rivers. Due to low water flow from the upstream and poor dredging, the depth of river beds have become very low, thus in every rainy season water swells up and maroons nearest lands and villages.

However, coastal farmers in the recent years have invented alternative ways to grow vegetables, making hanging and floating gardens, thanks to their endeavour to get adapted to the impacts of climate change.

Hanging garden is an innovative strategy to grow vegetables amid water-logging. And a floating garden is built using aquatic weeds as a base where vegetables can be grown.

The lands in Nazirpur sub-district under Pirojpur district remains under water for a significant period every year where farmers can grow nothing after Boro season. Farmers nowadays produce vegetables in those lands setting up floating gardens.

Abdur Rashid Molla, a farmer of Mugarjhore village under the sub-district, said to earn some money utilizing the water-logged lands, he makes raft from water hyacinth, a common weed, paddy straw, nalkhagra – a freshwater wetland tree, or other organic materials like azola, coconut straw, bamboo, and old rope.

He said the water hyacinth is placed onto the bamboo layer several times to build up its thickness. Later, soil, compost and cow dung are added to cover the base of the raft to a depth of around 25cm. The compost is made up from azola, a good nitrogen fixing plant, and other readily available organic matters.

Molla also said after that the seeds are sown by making round balls of compost comprising of decomposed water hyacinth and an organic fertilizer known locally as tema. A couple of seeds are planted into each ball and kept in a shaded area while germination takes place. Once the seedlings have begun to grow they can be planted out onto the raft.

He said crops like Kang Kong (leafy vegetables), okra (lady’s finger), gourd, brinjal (aubergine), pumpkin, bean, and onions can be grown in the raft.

Molla also said he earns some Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 each season buy growing vegetables in the floating gardens. In Nazirpur now vegetables are being grown in several thousand acres of land in floating gardens which has made many farmers financially solvent.

Many non-profit organizations like Practical Action Bangladesh and Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha are providing training to farmers to grow vegetables in floating and hanging gardens.

Shova Rani Sarker of Manirampur under Jessore district in south-western Bangladesh now produces vegetables in hanging gardens as her lands remain under water due to water-logging.

The water-logging has become a permanent problem after implementation of Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project, which was later rated as unsuccessful, less effective, inefficient, and unlikely to be sustainable.

Due to the permanent water-logging in lands many families of the areas, like Shova Rani Sarker’s, have become poor failing to grow paddy and other crops there. Many had started fish farming or fishing in the rivers but become unsuccessful to ensure livelihoods.

At one stage Shova Rani, in consultation with other neighbours, had started growing vegetables in ganging gardens. To create a hanging garden farmers of that area collect daily household wastes and keep those in a hole to decompose. After that they mix soil with the decomposed wastes and put those in big pots.

Later, the pots are hanged by building bamboo structures where seeds of vegetables are sown.

Shova Rani said nowadays many farmers in her area grow vegetables in hanging garden system. “I earn a good sum by selling those vegetables in nearby markets alongside meeting the nutritional needs of family members,” she said.

http://www.english.rtnn.net//newsdetail/detail/1/4/60699#.VJwAGcEA

Bangladesh farmers turn back the clock to combat climate stresses

By Syful Islam

Wed Nov 26, 2014 6:34pm IST

DHAKA, Bangladesh (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indigenous varieties of rice are making a comeback in Bangladesh as farmers abandon high-yielding hybrid rice in favour of more resilient varieties that can cope with more extreme climate conditions, researchers say.

About 20 percent of the rice fields planted in the low-lying South Asian nation now contain indigenous varieties that can stand up to drought, flooding or other stresses, said Jiban Krishna, director general of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute.

At its peak, high yielding varieties of rice are accounted for 90 percent of total rice grown in Bangladesh.

“In places where newly invented varieties fail to cope with stresses, farmers cultivate local varieties,” Krishna told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Bangladesh’s government first introduced high-yielding rice in the 1960s, in an effort to promote food security and meet rising demand, Krishna said. Over time, most farmers adopted the new varieties, which brought in higher incomes.

But in recent years, as climate change has brought more irregular rainfall – including worsening floods and droughts – farmers have had more difficulty producing consistent crops of high-yielding varieties.

That has led to a growing share of farmers returning to more resilient varieties capable of coping with the extreme conditions, or planting both old and new varieties side by side.

The switch back to traditional varieties has happened with the help of non-governmental organisations that have reintroduced the varieties in an effort to protect “heritage” species and help farmers cope with adverse weather conditions , Krishna said.

In C’Nababaganj district, for instance, the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge has helped farmers return to planting varieties that had almost vanished.

‘Saika’ rice, for instance, ripens in just 60 days – well short of the 90 to 110 days needed by hybrid varieties used in the area – and ‘Sashi Mohon’ needs hugely less water, said Pavel Partha, coordinator of the centre’s food security programme.

CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT POLICY

The government previously never promoted such varieties, considering them too low-yielding, he said. But in the face of growing climate impacts, it is now actively encouraging their cultivation as part of efforts to help farmers adapt to climate change, Partha said.

Farmers say returning to the old varieties has been a big help in ensuring they get a harvest each season.

“Cultivation in this area is facing immense trouble due to low and irregular rainfall. Even cultivation of rain-fed Aman (rice) is now totally dependent on irrigation which raises production costs,” said Hasan Ali, a farmer in Barandra village.

“In this situation we have brought in these indigenous aromatic varieties which are tolerant to many stresses," he said.

Another farmer, Anisur Rahman, said cultivation of the old varieties is expanding in part because they need almost no chemical fertiliser or pesticides – which makes them cheaper and easier to grow – and because their yields are good in tough conditions.

Abdus Sattar Hiru, a farmer in Traltalia village in Tangail district agreed that the ‘Afsara’ traditional rice he is now cultivating has brought in consistently good crops.

“The variety (grows over a) short duration and can be cultivated once the rainy season is over and water starts receding. In that period, modern or high yielding varieties can’t be cultivated but this local variety can,” he said.

Returning to ‘Afsara’ rice has also allowed him to bring back into production land previously left barren because high-yielding rice varieties did not grow there, he said.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/11/26/bangladesh-rice-idINKCN0JA15O20141126