Agriculture Reference
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of drip irrigation in the region. The Markov analysis has lucidly shown that the exist-
ing trend in cropping pattern changes will result in a new cropping pattern, which will
favor wider adoption of drip method of irrigation in the future.
TABLE 3
Transition probability and steady state probability of changes in cropping pattern in
Tamil Nadu.
Sor-
ghum
Ba-
nana
Coco-
nut
To -
mato
Veg-
etables
Crops
Maize
Grapes
Others
Sorghum
0.03
0.17
0.24
0.06
0.19
0.23
0.02
0.06
Banana
0.01
0.57
0.22
0.02
0.06
0.06
0.02
0.04
Coconut
0.04
0.07
0.75
0.01
0.04
0.09
0.00
0.00
Maize
0.04
0.18
0.18
0.29
0.15
0.13
0.00
0.04
Tomato
0.05
0.09
0.21
0.02
0.42
0.11
0.06
0.05
Grapes
0.01
0.01
0.07
0.00
0.02
0.87
0.01
0.01
Vegetables
0.03
0.12
0.20
0.06
0.18
0.12
0.24
0.05
Others
0.00
0.20
0.12
0.08
0.08
0.19
0.05
0.29
Fallow
0.06
0.14
0.26
0.08
0.20
0.14
0.04
0.08
Steady state
probabilities
0.02
0.10
0.32
0.01
0.07
0.44
0.01
0.02
2.4.4 IMPACT OF DRIP IRRIGATION ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
To assess the impact of drip irrigation on agricultural production, the economics of
drip irrigation were worked out for the major crops. The adoption of drip irrigation has
significant positive impact on the cost of cultivation and cost of production and returns
of the farmers. The economics of banana cultivation revealed that the cost of labor was
significantly lower under the drip method (Rs 9,761/ha), which was 69% less than in
the control villages (Rs 31,487/ha). The drip method significantly saves the human
labor involved in crop production activities. It also saves irrigation labor and weeding
labor. On an average, the human labor days used for weeding banana were 17 labor
days/ha under drip method and 60 labor days/ha under flood method of irrigation. The
drip method saved nearly 71% of weeding labor when compared to flood method of ir-
rigation. The irrigation labor has been worked out to be 168 labor days/ha under flood
method and 18 labor days/ha under drip method of irrigation. Due to this, the cost of
cultivation was significantly less under drip over the flood method.
The reduction in cost on human labor has a signifi cant bearing on the cost of culti-
vation. Though, the cost of installation of drip irrigation equipments and maintenance
is incurred by the farmers, the cost of cultivation per hectare has been worked out to be
Rs. 80,396/ha in drip farms, which is around 23% less than in the control villages (Rs.
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