Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Of the total fi xed investments, the investment on wells assumes major share. The
percent share of wells to the total cost is 39.38% for drip adopters and 57.44% for
control farmers. It is evident that the investment on wells is higher among the control
farmers. The percent share of drip investments is worked out to 35.67% implying huge
investment on drip irrigation.
Growing water scarcity coupled with low discharge rate forced the farmers to con-
struct an intermediate water storage structures. These farm surface storage tanks help
the farmers to store water and irrigate when and where needed. The water is pumped
from very deep borewell and stored in these tanks and then used for irrigating crops.
These storage structures are constructed by both the drip adopters and non-adopters.
As the cost of construction of surface storage tank is very low (Rs. 30 to 42/M
3
), it is
becoming popular among the farmers. These structures account 0.6% to 2.71%.
1.4.4 CROP YIELD AND PRODUCTIVITY GAINS
Micro irrigation in general drip irrigation method in particular, primarily followed for
increasing the water use efficiency. The yield of important crops grown in the sample
farms is presented in Table 5. In the study area, the drip method of irrigation is fol-
lowed widely in banana, coconut, and in few cases, drip adoption is followed in maize
and turmeric. As the focus of this study is impact of drip irrigation, the yield of drip-
adopted crops is compared with the flood method.
TABLE 5
Yield of selected crops (100 Kg/ha) in the study farms, 2007-2008.
Crops
Drip adopters
Non-adopters
Banana
605.6***
591.5
Coconut
Y
23012.8***
19213.5
Maize
33.4
Paddy
54.5
55.7
Sugarcane
110.7
Turmeric
50.3
Y = Number of nuts per hectare of coconut garden.
***, ** and * indicate values are significantly different at 1%, 5% and 10% levels from the
corresponding values of control village.
The yield of banana is worked out to 60,500 Kg/ha when compared to 59,100 Kg/
ha in the control farmers, accounting 2.38% increase in yield under drip method over
fl ood method of irrigation. Similarly, the coconut registered an increase in yield of
19.8% under drip over fl ood method of irrigation. The fi ndings of the research in this
chapter further confi rm increased productivity could be achieved through drip method
of irrigation and on line with the earlier studies [3, 12, 13]. This higher crop productiv-
ity under drip method of irrigation occurs mainly through higher water use effi ciency.
The drip method of irrigation, unlike fl ood method, supplies water continuously at
regular intervals, and the crops cultivated under drip method does not face moisture
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