Micro-irrigation resulting in better crop output: Study

The increasing usage of micro-irrigation in Gujarat is resulting in a better output of various crops including banana, cotton, groundnuts and other horticulture crops, a study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) reveals.

IWMI is funded by The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) operating in over 15 countries across the globe for sustainability and development of agriculture sector.

The study, 'Adoption and Impacts of Micro-irrigation Technologies: Empirical Results from Selected Localities of Maharashtra and Gujarat states' by Regassa Namara, Bhawana Upadhyay and R K Nagar, reveals that the usage of micro-irrigation, including drip and sprinkler methods, is resulting into better output of various crops in the state.

The study findings reveals that Gujarat farmers who have been using micro-irrigation have registered an increased output of crops. Low cost drip irrigation has increased the yield of banana to 14.2 tonne per hectare against the traditional irrigation or flood irrigation.

While those farmers who used conventional drip irrigation registered an increase of 18.1 tonne per hectare in banana crops.

In groundnut crop, micro tube drip resulted into an increased yield of 0.4 tonne per hectare, while micro sprinklers added 0.7 tonne per hectare in groundnut yield. Conventional sprinklers resulted into an increase of 0.5 tonne per hectare in groundnut yield. Farmers who take cotton crops use low-cost drip, micro-tube drip and conventional drip irrigation. Usage of low-cost drip added 0.7 tonne of cotton per hectare, while micro-tube drip resulted into increase of 0.5 tonne per hectare and farmers who use conventional drip registered an extra output of 0.9 tonne per hectare.

The study reveals that farmers who used micro irrigation also changed the cropping patterns. The study says, "An interesting outcome of micro-irrigation adoption is its impact on cropping patterns. Farmers who adopted alternative technologies in the study locations changed their crops and also the extent of cultivation. More specifically, micro-irrigation adoption proved to encourage farmers to increase their overall cropping intensity or to shift their cropping patterns to high-value, water intensive crops. For example, in Maharashtra, the main change in cropping pattern observed was a shift from groundnut and oil seeds to high-value, water intensive crops, such as banana. In Gujarat, an increase in vegetable production was observed."

In Gujarat 54.7 per cent of micro-irrigation adopter farmers shifted their crop to groundnut and other oilseeds which was lesser than the 63.7 per cent of non-adopters. However, 20.1 per cent of micro-irrigation adopters shifted their crop to cotton against 6.7 per cent of non-adopters.

A total of 9.7 per cent of adopters shifted their crop to cereals against 15.5 per cent of non-adopters. However, 6 per cent micro-irrigation adopter shifted to vegetables while only 2.9 per cent of non-adopters turned towards vegetables.