ECONOMIC APPRAISAL OF INVESTMENT ON IRRIGATION WELL FARMS AND WELFARE IMPLICATIONS IN HARD ROCK AREAS OF KARNATAKA
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Date
2009-09-24
Authors
RAVEESHA, S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Bangalore
Abstract
This study dealing with the Economic Appraisal Of Investment on Irrigation
Well Farms and Welfare Implications In Hard Rock Areas of Karnataka, is a modest
attempt towards resource economic evaluation of the groundwater recharge in
Tiptur taluk, Tumkur district of Karnataka during 2008-09. For field work, 35
sample farmers each were drawn from three situations (i) farmers owning irrigation
wells in the command area of system irrigation tank (GWTI), (ii) farmers owning
irrigation wells in the command area of canal irrigation (GWCI), and (iii) farmers
owning irrigation wells in the command area outside irrigation tanks and irrigation
canals or groundwater under sole irrigation (GWSI).
The major ground water irrigated crops were Coconut, Paddy, Arecanut,
Coconut + Arecanut, Banana, Tomato, Brinjal and Okra. The gross irrigated area
was the highest for Coconut forming 44 percent in GWTI, 55 percent in GWCI and
58 percent in GWSI. More than 70 percent of the gross cropped area is devoted to
perennial crops like Coconut and Arecanut, an indicator of farmers’ coping
mechanism to groundwater scarcity. The proportion of well failure was highest in
GWSI (45 per cent) followed by GWTI (20 per cent) and GWCI (19 per cent). The age
and ground water yield of bore wells is 10.00 years and 2016 GPH in GWTI, 10.95
years and 1877 GPH in GWCI and 7.42 years and 904 GPH in GWSI respectively.
Accordingly the annual Externality cost was Rs. 957 in GWTI, Rs 863 in GWCI, and
Rs. 3226 in GWSI. The net return per acre, net return per functioning well and net
return per rupee of irrigation water were Rs.12210, Rs.96979, Rs. 17.79 in GWTI,
Rs.10912, Rs. 77190, Rs. 20.60 in GWCI, and Rs. 9292, Rs.57665, Rs.6.41 in
GWSI. The incremental net return per acre in GWTI and GWCI has been positive
and statistically significant for all the sample farmers over GWSI.
The average depth 471 feet, nominal investment Rs. 75063, real investment Rs.
7396 , real cost per acre inch of water Rs. 49.46, and real investment per acre of
gross irrigated area of working wells Rs. 1947 for GWSI are higher over GWTI by
75, 52, 16, 81 and 53 per cent respectively. The average water extraction per
working well is higher in GWTI over GWSI by 53 per cent. Thus the GWTI farmers
have increased the irrigated area per well compared to GWSI farmers. The
technology and institutions have both played a significant role in economic impact
of groundwater. Accordingly the real cost of groundwater well has been falling and
currently hovers around Rs. 16 per foot of depth or the real cost per acre inch of
water has fallen down from Rs. 31.82 per acre inch in 1986 to Rs. 14.65 per acre
inch during 2008. The study apparently points to the contribution of system tank
irrigation and canal irrigation which has economically outperformed that of sole
well irrigation. The cost of groundwater (net return) per acre inch in GWTI, are Rs.
34 (Rs. 365), in GWCI are Rs. 44.46 (Rs. 449) and GWSI are 113 (Rs. 547. Thus
presence of surface water recharge substantially reduces the economic cost of
groundwater for irrigation and substantially improves the net farm incomes to Rs.
10.73 per acre inch for GWTI, Rs. 10.1 per acre inch for GWCI and Rs. 4.84 per
acre inch for GWSI.
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