An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Contract Choice in Groundwater Irrigation in Bangladesh: Are There Any Lessons for Ohio Agriculture?

Groundwater (GW) is a scarce and invisible resource, and is a
significant concern in many countries. Pollution and depletion
of it causes severe economic, environmental and social
dislocations in many countries including USA. Water-intensive
crops such as high-yielding variety (HYV) rice are grown
intensively using GW and densely populated countries, such
as Bangladesh, must grow irrigated crops to feed their large
populations. Boro rice accounts for 57% of the total annual
food grain production (33 million tons) in Bangladesh and
about 80 percent of Boro rice is produced using GW irrigation.
Many small farmers buy GW from neighbors to irrigate their
rice and one-fourth crop sharing has been the dominant
payment system for irrigation since the 1970s. Read the rest of
the abstract at senr.osu.edu