Economics of new energy efficient methods with micro irrigation in dyrland system

Abstract

The quantitative significance of the dryland agriculture is by no means small, even at their low productivity levels (Shah et al., 1998). The drylands accounts for 53% of total cropped area, 48% of the area under food crops and 68% under non-food crops. Given its large size and extremely low productivity levels, a unit rise in productivity in this sector is likely to have the largest impact on aggregate crop productivity. It is more appropriate to view the drylands as a source for future growth, a hidden potential waiting to be unlocked. The CRP1.1 Dryland Systems research is designed to pursue new knowledge about dryland agro-ecosystems of the developing world and to develop technologies and policies that will improve the livelihoods of poor agricultural communities in target regions. The overall goal is to identify and develop resilient diversified and more productive dryland agricultural production systems that have the potential to be scaled-up, especially in dry areas where water is scarce. The Program targets the poor and highly vulnerable populations of the dry areas. It aims to develop technology, policy and institutional innovations to improve livelihoods, using an integrated agro-ecosystems approach to research-for-development. As a part of this program and to contribute to the aforesaid overall goal, it is important to identify the feasible irrigation related investment opportunities in the dryland systems in Economics of new energy efficient methods with micro irrigation 3 order to compliment the agricultural production livelihood opportunities. The present study was undertaken in CRP1.1 action sites, viz., Bijapur district of Karnataka State and Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh state (India) mainly to assess and suggest suitable irrigation and energy related investment options both at farm level and community level. Hence, two irrigation investment options (farm pond integrated with micro irrigation and Solar pumps with micro irrigation and flood irrigation) were proposed to examine the economics of interventions in the dryland system.