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Drainage induced waterlogging problem and its impact on farming system: a study in Gosaba Island, Sundarban, India

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Drainage congestion induced waterlogging problem is a major issue for coastal agriculture in Sundarban. The mismanagement of drainage system, saucer shape appearance of the delta and erratic rainfalls in monsoon season (June–September) have been aggravated the problem of waterlogging. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to find out the root causes of waterlogging in agricultural field and its implications to the coastal agriculture. This work is based on primary data, directly collected from farmers through questionnaire and face to face interview to understand the issues and challenges of waterlogging in coastal agriculture. In addition to this, the Instrumental surveying has also been conducted to identify the minute changes in slope direction with relation to land use pattern of the delta. Remote sensing and GIS techniques help to detect the spatio-temporal change of drainage network and resulted drainage congestion through overlay analysis of multi-temporal vector layers. This study revealed that there are 70% farmers engaged in monocropping mainly rice farming but a few farmers treated waterlogging as an opportunity for integrated farming such as rice + fish farming, rice + fish + on dyke horticulture. The farmers who are engaged in monocropping intend to shift from monocropping to integrated farming system but monetary constrains and lacks of skills are the major barriers for adaptation of integrated farming. A comparative economic assessment has been done to calculate the relative economic efficiency of different types of farming system and better utilization of land use potentiality. This study is a way direction towards better management of agricultural system in this island.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is thankful to UGC, New Delhi, India for providing fellowship to carry out this research work. This work is a part of M.Phil research work and submitted to the University of Burdwan. We also thank to the Agriculture and Development Officer of Gosaba C.D. Block, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal and respondents for providing various information regarding agricultural activities of the island. The research work is not possible to accomplish without their assistance and cooperation.

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  1. Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Bardhaman, West Bengal, 713104, India

    Soumen Ghosh & Biswaranjan Mistri

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  1. Soumen Ghosh
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Ghosh, S., Mistri, B. Drainage induced waterlogging problem and its impact on farming system: a study in Gosaba Island, Sundarban, India. Spat. Inf. Res. 28, 709–721 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-020-00328-8

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