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Abstract:Water availability is at the core of sustainable socioeconomic development and ecological conservation along with global climate and land use changes, especially in the areas that experience water problems. This study investigated the impacts of land use change on surface runoff and water yield with scenario-based land use change in the upper and middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin, the second largest inland river basin in the arid region of northwestern China. Firstly, three land use structure scenarios were established, with different water utilization ratio levels (low-level, middle-level and high-level water utilization ratios). Then the spatial pattern of land uses was simulated with the Dynamic of Land System (DLS). Thereafter, the simulated land use data were used as the input data to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, keeping other input data unchanged to isolate the land use change impacts on surface runoff and water yield. The results showed that the forestland and grassland will expand along with the increase in water utilization ratio. The quick-response surface runoff would decrease significantly due to forest and grassland expansion, which may cause an overall decreasing trend of the water yield. This indicated OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 3087 the unreasonable allocation of water resources may exert negative impacts on the water yield even if the water utilization ratio is increased; therefore, water resources should be reasonably allocated for different land use demand, which is critical for sustainable development. The results of this study will be informative to decision makers for sustainable water resource and land management when facing land use change and an increasing demand for water resources in the Heihe River Basin.

Land is one of the important input resources in a highly populous and land-scarce country such as Bangladesh. When different factors change (such as, geophysical, proximity, socioeconomic and climatic), there are dramatic changes in the spatial pattern of land uses. Thus, shedding light on the dynamics of land use and land cover changes has great importance for finding the changing pattern of land use in Bangladesh. In the present study, we predicted the land use and land cover changes from 2010 to 2030 under baseline, ecological protection priority and economic growth scenarios in Bangladesh. On this basis, we applied a previously developed Dynamics of Land Systems (DLS) model to simulate the changes in land uses according to the driving mechanisms. The findings indicate that cultivated land declines and built-up area expansion is common under all three scenarios. However, the future land use demand shows differences under different scenarios. The results under the ecological protection priority scenario shows that forest area and grassland will increase more, while under economic growth scenario, built-up area will expand dramatically in the future. The present research results furnish meaningful decision-making information for planners to conserve and/or exploit land resources in Bangladesh in a more sustainable manner.

The study was undertaken to analyze the impact of micro-credit on rural women’s economic empowerment. The study was conducted in Bariyali, Teknogpara and Naga villages of Basan and Kayaltia union under Gazipur Sadar Upazila of Gazipur District. A total number of 90 respondents were selected as sample using stratified random sampling technique. Out of 90 respondents, 45 women were involved with Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) micro-credit program. Other 45 women had no involvement with any other micro-credit programs and they belonged to control group. Both these two groups had same socio-demographic characteristics. Survey method was applied and interview schedule was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. For measuring economic empowerment of rural women, three economic indicators ie., personal income, savings behavior and assets ownership were considered and sample t- test was performed to evaluate the impact of micro-credit on economic empowerment. Results of this study indicated significant differences between BRAC and non BRAC women regarding all these economic indicators of empowerment. In all the cases, BRAC women were more economically empowered than those of non BRAC women. It was also found that BRAC women had more active participation in various income generating activities. The study also revealed that the BRAC women received more micro-credit and utilized this for conducting more income generating activities than control group. They earned more income, saved more money and at the same time owned more assets than non BRAC women. The study stressed the need of more loans to be expanded to low income women folk by different GO and NGOs which would ultimately enhance their economic solvency and empower them economically. This would obviously be helpful for the upliftment of the rural women socio-economically. Keywords: Rural women; micro-credit; impact; empowerment DOI: 10.3329/agric.v8i2.7576 The Agriculturists 8(2): 43-49 (2010)

A study was conducted to determine the impact of pineapple cultivation on the income of pineapple growers of Madhupur upazila under Tangail District. The study also aimed at exploring the relationship between the selected characteristics of the respondents and their increased income from unit area. The study was conducted during the month of March and April, 2007. Seventy five respondents were selected as the sample for the study by using simple random sampling technique. Most of the respondents were middle aged (49.3%), had primary level of education (56%), possessed medium farm (57.3%) and small family size (85.3%). The respondents had medium organizational participation (65.3%) and medium extension contact (83.1%). It was found that most of the respondents had sufficient knowledge on pineapple cultivation along with favorable attitude towards pineapple cultivation. Kachu (Colocasia esculenta), turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber officinale), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) etc were the major crops used as intercrops with pineapple for proper utilization of land and higher economic return. It was also found from the study that most of the respondents belonged to the higher (54.7%) income category as their average increased income was 146.72 thousand taka per annum.

Madhupur Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, the largest belt of natural Sal forest in Bangladesh, is rich in ecological resources and biodiversity. In recent years, human disturbance leads to biodiversity loss from the forest, and it has a successive effect on the services that the forest provides. Thus, it is crucial to explore the present condition of the forest’s available ecosystem services with local people’s consciousness about the ecosystem. The present study investigated the available ecosystem services of Madhupur Sal forest, respondents’ perception towards those services and the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents that influenced their perception. Data were collected by interviewing 90 respondents with a focus group discussion. Most of the respondents in the study area were ethnic people (Garo). A total of 20 ecosystem services were identified where soil erosion control, mental peace and maintenance of soil fertility were the top-ranked services. About 83% of the respondents had moderately favorable perception towards ecosystem services. The study results showed that the respondents with a higher level of education, higher family annual income, and more training received on agriculture perceived ecosystem services to a greater extent than others. So, improvement of their perception towards ecosystem services can make them aware of forest biodiversity conservation.

Aims: Bangladesh, as a low-lying country, is vulnerable to global climate change and affected by floods and water logging. Hence, the country needs to adopt sufficient adaptation strategies which are based on local people traditional knowledge and locally available materials; hence, floating agriculture is that type of agriculture. Through this article we examine the floating agriculture related farmers opinion towards floating agriculture as a means of cleaner production Original Research Article

The study was conducted to determine the farmers' attitude towards using agro-chemicals in rice field in Laxmipur district of Bangladesh. Data were collected from seventy farmers following simple random sampling technique, complied and interpreted as per objectives of the study. Most of the farmers were middle aged, had primary level of education with small farm size, medium extension media contact with an average family annual income of about 1350 USD. About 87% of the farmers had low to medium knowledge on use of agro-chemicals in rice cultivation. About 74% of the farmers had moderately favorable attitude towards using agro-chemicals. Family annual income, extension media contact and knowledge on agro-chemical were the most important factors that affect the attitude of the farmers towards using agro-chemicals in crop production. Therefore it is recommended that arrangement of need based training with more extension contact for the farmers will be helpful to improve the behavior of using agro-chemicals.