Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sustainability. Yet in many parts of the country and elsewhere, these have yet to be
adopted widely. Keeping these issues in view, this chapter focuses on issues, such as:
(i) What changes the drip irrigation brings to the farming system?
(ii) Whether the adoption of drip irrigation is motivated by the cropping pattern or
the cropping pattern is followed by drip adoption? and
(iii) What policy action must be taken at different levels to speed up the adoption
of drip irrigation?
2.2 METHODOLOGY
2.2.1 SAMPLING FRAMEWORK
The study was conducted in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu state where ground-
water resource degradation is alarming. Two blocks were selected so as to represent
drip adoption and control. From the selected blocks, two revenue villages were selected
purposively where the adoption of drip irrigation is widespread. Farm households in
the selected villages constituted the sample units. To examine the adoption and impact
of drip irrigation on resource use, agricultural production and farm income, 25 drip-
adopting farmers were selected in each village and correspondingly 25 nondrip adopt-
ers were selected in control villages. To select the drip adopters, the list of farmers from
the Department of Agricultural Engineering was collected. Also, we enumerated the list
of farmers adopting drip irrigation after discussions with the villagers and private firms
dealing drip irrigation systems. Thus, a sample of 100 farmers was studied.
2.2.2 SAMPLING DATA
For the purpose of the study, both secondary and primary information was collected
from different sources. The secondary information included trend in rainfall, growth
in the number of wells, number of wells functioning and wells defunct, cropping pat-
tern, crop yields, occupational structure and area irrigated. The general particulars of
the area were collected from the Assistant Director of Statistics and Assistant Direc-
tor of Agriculture of the respective regions. Interview schedules were formulated and
pretested. The needed information from the respondent group was gathered person-
ally administering the interview schedule. The primary information collected from the
farm households included details on well investment, groundwater use, extraction and
management, crop production including input use and output realized, farm income,
adoption of drip irrigation, and investment on drip irrigation. This also included asset
position, education and other socioeconomic conditions.
2.2.3 MARKOV CHAIN ANALYSIS
Our objective here was to study the changes that have occurred in the farming system,
particularly through cropping pattern as a result of adoption of drip irrigation. In order
to examine the changes in the cropping pattern, Markov chain analysis was performed.
Markov chain models are concerned with the problems of movement, both in terms
of movement from one location to another and in terms of movement from one “state”
to another. These models are used for describing and analyzing the nature of changes
generated by the movement of such variables, in some cases these models may also be
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