The Vision of Agri-Environmental Sustainability in Bangladesh: How the Policies, Strategies and Institutions Delivered?

Agriculture and environmental change are tightly interconnected in ways that require active roles of policy, strategy, and institution for the promotion of sustainable agriculture development. To explore this issue, this study addresses two questions 1) to what extent is environmental integration reflected in policies, strategies, and institutions? And 2) how do these policies, strategies, and institutions turn ambitions into actions? By adopting two frameworks developed by the OECD and the European Environment Agency as well as critically reviewing policy documents and conducting the key informant interviews, the results revealed that most of the policies and strategies integrated the environmental issue and had stipulated action plans and governance structure for implementation. The results also found that institutions marginally integrated the environmental concerns and faced several problems that hindered turning ambitions into actions. Overall, although policy instruments were good, the vision of sustainability was in difficulty to actualizing into action due to weak institutional setup. This study highlights the interdependence between the dimensions of policy implement tation process. Policy implications should emphasize enhancing institutional capacity, revamping agricultural advisory services, and empowering Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) to translate the vision of agri-environmental sustainability into action.

A Multi-Level Evaluation of Policy Integration of Human Resource Development in Agriculture Sector

Human resource development assumes as a golden key for a knowledge-based economy and competitiveness. This study evaluates policy integration of human resource development (HRD) in agricultural sector within the context of multi-level governance (i.e., interdependence of administrative levels in decision making) and suggests means to enhance policy integration in Bangladesh. Conducting a critical review of major policy instruments, key informant interview and two case studies, this study concluded that HRD issue has fairly included and observed consistency (between the aim of HRD and policy) in all policies and strategies;majority of policy instruments have significantly addressed the significance of HRD and added plans for its development;reporting, monitoring and evaluation of policies and strategies are rather weak and there is no adequate flow of financial arrangement that is largely determined by the availability of government project. Based on the findings, the following means should be useful for improving HRD policy integration such as providing a handsome amount of development budget at the sub-district agricultural office, formulating coherent strategies to build effective cooperation, coordination and participation among stakeholders, initiating special capacity building programmes for rural women, young farmers and smallholders and mainstreaming HRD issue in governmental planning and programmes, and accordingly crafting policies and implementation.

Constructed Wetlands as a Natural Resource for Water Quality Improvement in Malaysia

Tropical wetlands have numerous natural functions, one of which is the filtration of wastewater for water quality improvement. The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of constructed wetlands in Universiti Sains Malaysia for water quality treatment of stormwater runoff. A total of 17 sampling stations were selected from different sections of possessing different compositions, characteristics and plant species. Weekly physico-chemical and biological parameters were analysed during the one year period starting from December 2010 to December 2011. The results exhibited significant improvement of water quality as the concentration of nitrate, nitrite, ammoniacal-nitrogen, orthophosphate, TSS, BOD and COD decreased after the water passed through the macrophyte and micropool zones before being discharged to the wetland outlet. The concentration of nitrite was significantly reduced (80%);nitrate (61.56%), ammoniacal-nitrogen (51.49%), orthophosphate (60.98%), TSS (67.86%), BOD (27.7%) and COD (46.43%). The decrease in the concentrations of the above pollutants showed that the improvement of water quality was performed in the wetland. Most of the concentrations fall in Class IIA and IIB based on National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia and Department of Environment (DOE) Water Quality Index Classification. Biological measurement showed high diversity of species. Based on the results obtained, the macrophyte zone showed a high number of species and percentage distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton, starting from the Wetland 1and 2 until the outlet wetland (14.6% - 14.9% until 3.5%). While for fish distribution, Oreochromis niloticus was the dominant fish species from the others seven species found in the constructed wetland. Overall, the results from this study demonstrate that constructed wetlands significantly improve water quality of stormwater runoff, and that they are a good natural resource for the sustenance and maintenance of biodiversity.

Using a modified PAP/RAC model and GIS-for mapping water erosion and causal risk factors:Case study of the Asfalou watershed,Morocco

Our work focuses on the assessment of trends,erosion states and causal risk factors for soil erosion of the Asfalou watershed through the use of the Priority Actions Program/Regional Activity Center(PAP/RAC).This qualitative study model for water erosion makes it possible to assess susceptibility and determine potential fragile areas in order to diagnose the state of soil degradation.We adopted the PAP/RAC crossed matrices,the geographic information system(GIS)and remote sensing(RS)to develop the classical modelling.This method is based on three main approaches:predictive,descriptive and integration.Introducing soil types,slope length(LS)and climatic factors into our model,including rainfall erosivity(R),slope exposure,soil moisture index(SMI)and land surface temperature(LST),improved the reli-ability of our model.The correlation analysis identified these factors that explain erosion states and the risk of soil erosion.The coefficients of determination(R2)of the various erosive states resulting from the modified PAP/RAC approach explain respectively 98.30%,77%and 49.3%of the observed variability of the erosive states.These factors provide information on the current state of soil degradation depending on the degree of influence of the different factors that control erosion.The descriptive approach has shown that soil loss manifests itself in different forms,whether for sheet erosion(L)and ravines(C1)succes-sively affecting 79.95%and 17.84%of the land.The integration approach identifies factors and areas requiring intervention to counter the effects of soil erosion in the Asfalou watershed effectively and sustainably.