尼泊尔：落后的灌溉系统使粮食减产加剧

尼泊尔专家说，尼泊尔政府需要提升灌溉管理系统以提高农业产量、克服落后水利设施和粮食缺乏的现状。

尼泊尔全国有120万公顷水浇地，其中大部分位于Terai（尼泊尔南部）和其他一些地区，很少一部分位于偏远的中西部山区。从联合国世界粮食计划署可知，有600,000人口居住在偏远的喜马拉雅山脚下，此地生产的粮食尚不能自足。

现在，粮食安全问题是Terai和Saptari、Siraha肥沃灌溉地区的主要问题，据联合国世界粮食计划署发表的报告可知，这三地的水稻因为2010年晚期降雨而使产量减产50%。当地的民间组织称此次减产就是因为当地的灌溉不能发挥该有的作用。

农民管理灌溉

联邦管理信息系统通常利用木质或石质的传统运河灌溉，政府给建造的都是混凝土的，包括管井、浅水井和地下水井。因为疏忽和年久失修，目前只有三分之二的灌溉系统在季风季节可以正常运行，只有三分之一的土地可以常年得到灌溉。

Pradha说，在偏远山区，为了适应不稳定降雨节气和长期存在的食物问题，政府需要给予FMIS足够多的帮助。她说："显然，与灌溉系统管理相比较，政府通过FMIS可以使农业产量大增。" 她解释说，在FMIS内，农民负责水的获取和分配等所有长期性管理，但如果没有政府的资金支持，在这些区域实施起来很难。

从水利部获悉，到目前为止，国家拥有120万亩水浇地，FMIS覆盖了70%，30%水浇地是由政府管理。从农业部得知，上个世纪七十年代，尼泊尔是一个粮食输出国，但在过去几十年里使之变成了粮食输入国，每公顷每年粮食产量低于2.5吨。Pradhan说国家应该利用更好的灌溉系统提高谷物产量至六倍。

人口快速增长和大量迁移使得粮食供应紧张。到上世纪七十年代，三分之二的人口居住在山区，三分之一的居住在Terai，但是因为山区农业产量很低，促使更多人们移居Terai。

革新？

国家的大部分可耕土地都在继续使用，但很少有技术上的提高，最好的解决办法就是农业灌溉，据政府灌溉管理部门描述。

灌溉管理部门副局长Uttam Raj Timilsina 告诉IRIN："我们不能说只有落后的灌溉系统该为食品安全负责，但它确实起着重要的作用。" Timilsina说，政府开展了关于跨流域河流项目的调查，用以推进灌溉管理，

希望这项计划可以将水从大河调运到国家内部支流，来保证常年可以灌溉，希望政府可以将改造灌溉作为一项十年战略来实施。

NEPAL: "Dismal" irrigation system worsens crop shortages

KATHMANDU, 7 January 2011 (IRIN) - The government of Nepal needs to improve irrigation management to achieve higher agricultural productivity and overcome "dismal" water and crop shortages, experts say.

Most of the country"s 1.2 million hectares (ha) of irrigated land is in the fertile Terai (southern Nepal) or other easily accessible areas, but very little in the hill regions of the food-insecure far and mid-west.

According to UN World Food Programme (WFP), the 600,000 people living in the far and mid-west regions at the base of the Himalayan mountains - also referred to as the hills - have the most problems growing and accessing enough food to survive.

Food security is increasingly problematic even in the fertile irrigated districts of the Terai, including Saptari and Siraha, where paddy production was reduced by half due to late rains in 2010, according to a yet-to-be-published report by WFP.

Just because there is irrigation does not mean it works, according to FMIS-Promotion Trust, a local NGO that works with centuries-old farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS).

Farmer managed irrigation

FMIS mostly uses traditional canals made of wood, boulders, shrubs and logs, whereas government constructed systems are concrete, and include tube wells, shallow wells and groundwater.

Because of neglect and lack of maintenance, only two-thirds of the nation"s entire irrigation network works during the monsoon season and only one third of the land is irrigated year-round.

To adapt to changing rain patterns and longstanding food problems in remote mountainous areas, the government needs to give more support to FMIS, said Pradhan.

"There is clear evidence that there has been higher agricultural productivity through FMIS than the irrigation system managed by the government," she said.

She explained how, in FMIS, farmers take responsibility for water acquisition, allocation, distribution and overall management on a continuous basis - but lack critical government financial backing, especially to operate in difficult terrain.

So far, 1.2 million ha of the country"s irrigable land has watering systems, out of which FMIS covers 70 percent, with the rest government-managed, according to the Ministry of Irrigation.

Until the 1970s, Nepal was as a food exporting nation, but in the past decade it has become a net food importing country, producing less than 2.5 tons of grain per hectare annually, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

But the country could boost cereal production six-fold with better irrigation systems, said Pradhan.

Rapid population growth and migration put a squeeze on the region"s food supply. Until the 1970s, two-thirds of the population lived in the hills and one-third in the Terai, but low agricultural productivity in the hill regions encouraged more people to move to the Terai.

Revamp?

Since almost all of the country"s arable land is under cultivation and there have been few technological improvements for Nepal"s rain-fed crops, the best solution is irrigated agriculture, according to the government"s Irrigation Management Division (IRM).

"We cannot say that the poor irrigation system alone is to be blamed for food insecurity but it does play a major role," Uttam Raj Timilsina, IRM"s deputy director general, told IRIN.

The government is conducting surveys to start inter-basin river projects to boost irrigation management, said Timilsina.

The hope is these projects can transfer water from big rivers (Bheri, Kali, Trishuli, Koshi) to tributaries in the country"s interior to ensure year-round irrigation, working towards a 10-year government strategy of revamping irrigation.