Impact of Drip Irrigation Systems on Farm Economy in North Karnataka An Economic Analysis

Abstract

India s growth presently needs of new and effective technologies particularly newlinewater utilisation technologies in the ensuring days. The water distribution to agriculture newlinewill decline to 50 per cent from the present level of 70 per cent. In this context, Drip newlineirrigation is technology assuming as most demanded technology. To conduct study, newlinefarmers were selected in 2:1 basis i.e., 20 drip irrigated and 10 conventional farmers newlinefrom each village and thus total sample size of 240. The selected district s physical newlineprogress was found high in Vijayapura (18.15 %) followed by Belagavi district (13.82 newline%) as these districts have suitable climatic conditions for the horticulture crops. Initial newlineinvestment on installation of drip irrigation system for grape was found comparatively newlinehigh from other horticulture cropping system which accounts to be Rs. 1,58,774/ha. The newlinedrip irrigation system had slightly increased initial investment but it had less annual newlinemaintenance cost (viz. weeding and irrigation labour). In case of grape, total newlineestablishment cost of grape orchard under drip irrigation system was higher at Rs. newline7,61,826 /ha compared to Rs. 6,98,369 /ha under conventional irrigation system. The newlinemaintenance cost incurred up to bearing period was higher under conventional irrigation newlinesystem (Rs. 2,62,051 /ha) over drip irrigation system (Rs. 2,37,965 /ha). Among the newlinedifferent horticulture based cropping system(HBCS) the returns per rupee of newlineexpenditure was highest in HBCS I (2.24) followed by HBCS IV (2.17), HBCS II (1.83) newlineand HBCS III (1.83). The (HBCS I) was found to be the optimum cropping system. The newlineNet Present Value (NPV) of investment was high in grape (Rs. 13,80,768), where as it newlinewas Rs. 3,19,472 for lime orchard. The opinion of farmers revealed that administrative newlineand financial related problems were the major concern. The study suggests to follow newlineHBCS for its economic benefits newline