ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT ON FARM PONDS IN TUNGABHADRA PROJECT COMMAND AREA

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2012-07-15
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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT ON FARM PONDS IN TUNGABHADRA PROJECT COMMAND AREA RAVI SIMHA L. ABSTRACT Farm ponds in Tungabhadra Project command area (TBP) play a pivotal role as an artificial water storage structures for multipurpose utility. However, there are several apprehensions on storage of water in farm ponds using canal water especially by farmers at head and middle reach creating inequality in water distribution, seepage leading to degradation of low lying lands and so on. To address these issues the present study was carriedout in TBP area with sample size of 53 farmers having farm ponds and 30 farmers without farm pond for comparison. The results revealed that, utility of farm ponds in TBP area was mainly for paddy nursery raising (79 %), followed by protective irrigation for paddy (77 %), drinking water for animals (57 %), fish rearing (42 %) and drinking water for human beings (37 %). It was also found that, net income/acre for farmers having farm pond from paddy, hybrid jowar and cotton cultivation increased by 6, 58 and 5 per cents, respectively as compared to these crops under farmers having no farm pond. Cropping intensity under farmers having farm ponds was 188 per cent as compared to 142 per cent under farmers having no farm pond. Fish rearing contributed lions share with 46 per cent to the total net income of the farmers having farm pond followed by paddy cultivation (29 %), horticulture crops on pond embankments (7.6 %), and hybrid jowar (7.4 %). All the utilities of farm pond put together increased farmers net income to ` 7.6 lakh/pond/year (by 326 %) as against ` 1.76 lakh/farm holding/year among farmers having no farm pond. In addition to increased net income, farm ponds also generated 30 per cent additional employment. Even though farm ponds in TBP command area required a huge investment ranging from ` 6 to ` 20 lakhs/pond, indicators of investment analysis like BCR with more than one, positive and more than one NPV, IRR (18 %) with more than bank interest rate and Payback period of 6 years clearly indicated its investment feasibility. Therefore, farmers may be encouraged by providing financial assistance to construct farm ponds as ‘micro balancing reservoir’ and also need to be educated on use farm pond water more judiciously for sustainable income.
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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT ON FARM PONDS IN TUNGABHADRA PROJECT COMMAND AREA
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