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State of Adoption of Drip Irrigation for Crops Cultivation in Maharashtra

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Micro Irrigation Systems in India

Part of the book series: India Studies in Business and Economics ((ISBE))

Abstract

The water use efficiency under conventional method of irrigation predominantly practiced in Indian agriculture is very low due to substantial conveyance and application losses. Recognizing the consistent decline in utilizable water resources for irrigation and increase in demand for water from other competing use sectors, a number of demand management strategies have been introduced to increase water use efficiency in agriculture. One such method is drip method of irrigation (DMI). DMI is proved to be an efficient method in increasing water use efficiency as compared to the flood method of irrigation (FMI) and saving water at the field level. The adoption of DMI has been relatively high in Maharashtra state where it is used mainly for cultivating sugarcane, grapes, banana and cotton. Although more than 20 years have passed since the introduction of state-specific promotional scheme for DMI in the State, not many studies have analysed its overall status. This Chapter makes an attempt to address such questions as: What is the current status of DMI in the state in relation to other Indian states? Is DMI economically viable for farmers? Can farmers adopt DMI without government subsidy? The analysis shows that the productivity of crops, saving of water and electricity as well as profits were significantly higher for sugarcane, grapes, banana and cotton cultivated under DMI than that under FMI. The discounted cash flow technique employed to find out the viability of drip investment shows that DMI is economically viable for all the four crops even without capital subsidy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The BC ratio provided for different crops in INCID (1994) indicates that investment in drip irrigation is economically viable, even after excluding water saving from the calculation. The estimated benefit-cost ratio comes to 13.35 in crops like grapes and 1.41 in the case of coconut. However, it is not clear whether the B-C ratios presented in INCID (1994) have been estimated using discounted cash flow technique or not. Unlike INCID estimates, using discounted cash flow technique and that too utilizing field survey data covering four crops, namely grapes, banana, sugarcane and cotton, Narayanamoorthy (1997, 2003, 2004a, b, 2008) estimated the B-C ratio and net present worth. These studies suggest that the investment in drip method of irrigation is economically viable for farmers, even without availing any subsidy from the government.

  2. 2.

    A total of 4050 large dams were completed in the country as per the latest information available from CWC (2004). Of the total projects completed in the country so far, 1453 dams are in the Maharashtra state alone, which is about 36 % of the total number of large dams in the country. On an average, about 26 projects per year have been completed during the period 1951–2000.

  3. 3.

    Detailed estimate on demand-supply of water for different sectors across basins is available only for two time points, namely 1996 and 2030. For the purpose of a comparison, the year 1996 has been here referred as the current period.

  4. 4.

    The studies on four different crops were carried out at different reference periods and at different locations in Maharashtra. The detailed methodology adopted for these studies and the analysis on various issues of drip method of irrigation can be seen from Narayanamoorthy (1997, 2003, 2004a, b, 2008).

  5. 5.

    Most studies based on research station data have measured water consumption in terms of centimeter (cm) in drip irrigation. But, in practice, measuring water in terms of cm is not an easy task at the field level as HP of the pump sets and water level of the well changes considerably across the farms. Because of these difficulties, one is compelled to measure the water consumption in terms of horse power (HP) hours of irrigation, which is computed by multiplying HP of the pump-set with hours of water used.

  6. 6.

    In order to know the impact of drip method of irrigation on electricity saving, the consumption of electricity is estimated based on the hours of pump set operation for both drip adopters and non-adopters groups. Further, for estimating the quantum of electricity saved, we have assumed that for every hour of operation of pump-set, 0.750 kWh of power is used per HP. Since all the farmers in both the groups have used only electrical pump sets, we have simply multiplied HP hours of water with assumed power consumption of 0.75/kWh/HP to arrive at the per hectare electricity consumption.

  7. 7.

    The drip method of irrigation involves fixed capital and therefore, it is necessary to take into account the income stream for the whole life-span of drip investment. Since it is difficult to generate the cash flows for the entire life-span of drip investment in the absence of observed temporal information on benefits and costs, we had to make few realistic assumptions so as to estimate both the cash inflows and cash outflows for drip investment. These assumptions followed for estimating BCR were: (a) The life-period of the drip-set was considered as five years for sugarcane and banana, and 10 years for grapes and cotton, as followed by the INCID study (1994) as well as the experience gathered from the field, (b) The cost of cultivation and income generated using drip method of irrigation was assumed constant during the entire life-period of drip-set in all the four crops, (c) Differential rates of discount (interest rates) were considered to undertake the sensitivity of investment to the change in capital cost. These were assumed at 10 and 15 % as alternatives representing various opportunity costs of capital, and (d) The crop cultivation technology was assumed constant for all the four crops during the entire life-period of drip-set.

  8. 8.

    This profit was calculated by deducting gross income from cost A2, which can be appropriately called as farm business income.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India

    A. Narayanamoorthy

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  1. A. Narayanamoorthy
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gujarat Institute of Devt Research, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    P. K. Viswanathan

  2. Analysis and Policy IRAP, Institute for Resource, Hyderabad, India

    M. Dinesh Kumar

  3. Alagappa Puram, Alagappa Univ,Dept. of Eco. & Rural Devt, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India

    A. Narayanamoorthy

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Narayanamoorthy, A. (2016). State of Adoption of Drip Irrigation for Crops Cultivation in Maharashtra. In: Viswanathan, P., Kumar, M., Narayanamoorthy, A. (eds) Micro Irrigation Systems in India. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0348-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0348-6_3

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