Person: Mcdonald, Andrew
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Mcdonald
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Andrew
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Mcdonald, A.
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0000-0002-2660-3470 7 results
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- Adapted conservation agriculture practices can increase energy productivity and lower yield-scaled greenhouse gas emissions in coastal Bangladesh(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Krupnik, T.J.; Hossain, M.K; Timsina, J.; Gathala, M.K.; Sapkota, T.; Samina Yasmin; Shahjahan, M.; Hossain, F.; Alanuzzaman Kurishi, A.S.M.; Miah, A.A.; Saidur Rahman, B.M.; Mcdonald, A.
Publication - How much can smallholders in Bangladesh benefit from summer tomato cultivation? an applied agro-economic analysis of on-farm data(SAARC Agricultural Centre, 2015) Baksh, M.E.; Rossi, F.J.; Krupnik, T.J.; Talukder, A.S.M.H.; Mcdonald, A.
Publication - Sustainable crop intensification through surface water irrigation in Bangladesh? A geospatial assessment of landscape-scale production potential(Elsevier, 2017) Krupnik, T.J.; Schulthess, U.; Ahmed, Z.; Mcdonald, A.Changing dietary preferences and population growth in South Asia have resulted in increasing demand for wheat and maize, along side high and sustained demand for rice. In the highly productive northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, farmers utilize groundwater irrigation to assure that at least two of these crops are sequenced on the same field within the same year. Such double cropping has had a significant and positive influence on regional agricultural productivity. But in the risk-prone and food insecure lower Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP), cropping is less intensive. During the dryer winter months, arable land is frequently fallowed or devoted to lower yielding rainfed legumes. Seeing opportunity to boost cereals production, particularly for rice, donors and land use policy makers have consequently reprioritized agricultural development investments in this impoverished region. Tapping groundwater for irrigation and intensified double cropping, however, is unlikely to be economically viable or environmentally sound in the EIGP. Constraints include saline shallow water tables and the prohibitively high installation and energetic extraction costs from deeper freshwater aquifers. The network of largely underutilized rivers and natural canals in the EIGP could conversely be tapped to provide less energetically and economically costly surface water irrigation (SWI). This approach is now championed by the Government of Bangladesh, which has requested USD 500 million from donors to implement land and water use policies to facilitate SWI and double cropping. Precise geospatial assessment of where freshwater flows are most prominent, or where viable fallow or low production intensity cropland is most common, however remains lacking. In response, we used remotely sensed data to identify agricultural land, detect the temporal availability of freshwater in rivers and canals, and assess crop production intensity over a three-year study period in a 33,750 km2 case study area in southwestern Bangladesh. We combined these data with georeferenced and temporally explicitly soil and water salinity information, in addition to relative elevation classifications, in order to examine the extent of winter fallows and low productivity rainfed cropland that could be irrigated by small-scale surface water pumps. Applying observations of irrigated crop sowing dates and yields from 510 wheat, 550 maize, and 553 rice farmers, we also modeled crop intensification production scenarios within the case study area. We conservatively estimate that at least 20,800 and 103,000 ha of fallow and rainfed cropland, respectively, could be brought into intensified double cropping using SWI. Scenario analysis indicates that if 25%–75% of the fallow or low-intensity land were converted to irrigated maize, national aggregate production could increase by 10–14% or 29–42%, respectively. Conversion to wheat would conversely boost national production by 9–10% or 26–31%. Irrigated rice is however unlikely to contribute >3%. In aggregate, these actions could generate between USD 36–108 million of revenue annually among farmers. Intensification therefore has important land use policy and food and income security implications, helping to rationalizei SWI investments. Crop choice, water resource allocation, and water governance will however remain crucial considerations for irrigation planners.
Publication - What Contribution Can Surface Water Irrigation Make to Sustainable Crop Intensification in Bangladesh’s Feed the Future Zone?(CIMMYT, 2016) Krupnik, T.J.; Schulthess, U.; Ahmed, Z.; Mcdonald, A.Global food requirements are projected to increase until 2050. In South Asia, averagewheat, maize and rice yields have however increased by only 2.2 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, since the 1960s.1 Rather than raising yield, crop production can be increased by expanding cultivated land area, though this has undesirable environmental outcomes such as biodiversity loss. The potential for agricultural expansion in South Asia is also limited because most arable land is cropped for at least part of the year, usually during the monsoon. Farm area per capita in South Asia has also shrunk by 63 percent since 1961, to approximately 0.1 hectare per person. 2 Sustainable intensification (SI) has been proposed as an alternative to area expansion. SI aims to augment land productivity by increasing resource use efficiency while minimizing environmental trade-offs. 3 An important SI strategy is increasing the number of crops grown per year on the same land, thereby raising yield per unit of area-time, while minimizing land expansion. 4 Achieving such ‘double cropping’ will often require irrigated dry season cropping to overcome moisture constraints to adequate yields.
Publication - Made in Bangladesh: scale-appropriate machinery for agricultural resource conservation (Bangla language version)(CIMMYT, 2014) Krupnik, T.J.; Santos Valle, S.; Mcdonald, A.; Justice, S.; Hossain, I.; Gathala, M.K.
Publication - Made in Bangladesh: scale-appropriate machinery for agricultural resource conservation(CIMMYT, 2013) Krupnik, T.J.; Santos Valle, S.; Mcdonald, A.; Justice, S.; Hossain, I.; Gathala, M.K.An open-source publication targeted to machinery manufacturers, engineers, researchers and development practitioners, this book describes and provides technical designs for small-scale agricultural machinery developed or produced in Bangladesh to support the sustainable intensification of agriculture by smallholder farmers. The focus is on smart, scale-appropriate equipment - particularly for use with two-wheel hand tractors suited for the small plots typical throughout Bangladesh, but also in many countries where small-holder farmers predominate. Most of the machinery is designed for use with conservation agriculture crop management practices and allows precise and timely seeding and fertilization of crops with reduced soil disturbance. Each chapter includes written descriptions and photographs of the machines, outlining their purpose, performance and field use, followed by detailed, to-scale technical designs and other information to facilitate production of standardized copies or improvements in the original designs. The implements described include zero tillage and strip till seed and fertilizer drills, bed planters, axial flow irrigation pumps, strip tillage blades, improved furrow openers and seed metering mechanisms - all specialized for use with two-wheel tractors.
Publication - Mapping field-scale yield gaps for maize: An example from Bangladesh(Elsevier, 2013) Schulthess, U.; Timsina, J.; Herrera, J.M.; Mcdonald, A.Accurate estimation of the size and spatial distribution of the yield gap has many practical applications, including relevance to precision agriculture and technology targeting. The objectives of this study were to illustrate a methodology to create a yield gap map and to discuss its potential uses to provide optimal crop management recommendations to the farmers. We used the HybridMaize crop simulation model to estimate potential yield for maize grown in the winter season in northwestern Bangladesh. This is a high yielding environment, where farmers achieve yields as high as 12 Mg/ha. The model predicted a mean potential yield of 12.87 Mg/ha. We used a RapidEye satellite image acquired around tasseling to identify the maize fields, calculate ground cover and its regression to actual yield from farmers? fields. Next, the regression was applied to all the maize pixels in the image to calculate actual yield. In the last step, we created a yield gap map based on the difference between potential and actual yield. Yield gap maps will enable agronomists to identify production constraints on farmers? fields with large yield gaps. Alternatively, by learning from the farmers with the highest actual yields and analyzing their data, it will be possible to generate region or field specific, optimized crop management recommendations.
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