Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
week. The bucket sizes range from 8 to 14 litres. Farmers use their own
discretion to decide how many buckets of water are needed per bed, and
depend, among others, on the crop type and the dimensions of the bed.
In general farmers try to be efficient in water-use due to the scarcity of water
in the dry season. Farmers who abstract water with motorized pumps try to
be extra efficient in energy consumption due to the cost of fuel. Similarly,
farmers applying water manually are also efficient because they apply water
directly to the roots of the crops.
Figure 6.1 show the amount of water applied per irrigation technology and
the corresponding expenditure on water. The cost of water is not related to
the volume of water applied but rather to the technology.
Figure 6.1: a) Seasonal irrigation water applied; b) Seasonal expenditure on
irrigation water.
6.3.4 Crop productivity
The productivity of the irrigation technologies is measured in terms of crop
yields. The yields of the crops were measured in the field by weighing
harvested products on the farm. Tomatoes are harvested and sold in
boxes/crates, basins or buckets. (There are two different sizes of boxes/crates
(105 kg and 156 kg of tomatoes), while a basin carries 34 kg and the bucket
carries 21 kg of tomatoes.) Farmers were provided with field-books in which
they recorded harvesting dates; the amount of boxes/bucket/basin harvested;
the type of box; number of labourers employed, labour cost and selling price.
Farmers gave the labourers who helped in the harvesting about 2 kg each of
tomatoes at the end of each harvesting day as part of their wages. These
were also factored into the computation of the total yield (Figure 6.2a). Also
the amount (by weight) of fertilizer applied was estimated (Figure 6.2b),
showing that fertilizer applications tend to be very high: on average more
than 1,000 kg/ha. Comparing Figure 6.2a & b suggests a positive correlation
between crop yield and the amount of fertilizer applied.
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