Impact of land degradation in malaprabha command area in karnataka An economic analysis
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Date
2010
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Publisher
UAS, Dharwad
Abstract
The indiscriminate use of irrigation has resulted in adverse effects like land
degradation in the form of waterlogging and soil salinity. This has resulted in decline in crop
production, farm income and indirect economic losses. The study attempts to assess the
impact of land degradation in the Malaprabha Command Area.
A multistage stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the districts
(Stage-I), taluks (Stage-II) and villages (Stage-III) in the command based on the largest area
affected under waterlogging and soil salinity, a sample of 180 farmers comprising 45 normal
and 135 problematic farms were randomly selected for the study.
The study revealed that maize and wheat were the major crops grown on the sample
farms. About 61 per cent of the total land of sample farms was degraded due to waterlogging
and salinity. The cost of cultivation was less by of 30 per cent to 58 per cent in case of maize
and 28 per cent to 53 per cent in case of wheat on problematic soils compared to normal
farms. The drop in productivity was highest in case of maize followed by wheat. The net
returns were negative for maize and wheat on problematic soils. The decomposition analysis
indicated that, waterlogging and salinity depressed maize and wheat yield during kharif and
rabi/summer.
The Timmer measure of technical efficiency in maize and wheat revealed that, the
high technical efficiency level were more in normal soils and low in case of degraded soils.
The annual production lost was high in degraded soils.
The migration was more among marginal and small farmers. The land resource
degradation was more in severe saline soil compared to other soils.
Gini ratio analysis revealed that inequity in income was found greater among
degraded farms than normal farms. Farmers have strong perception about waterlogging and
salinity.
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Keywords
Agricultural Economics