Reaping rich dividends through drip irrigation

Telangana Micro Irrigation Project

Deployment of micro irrigation systems or drip irrigation in Telangana is yielding fruitful results in output and crop value. Analysis of case studies under the Telangana Micro Irrigation Project indicates boost in benefits across all parameters including yield, crop value and net value for cultivators who have shifted from conventional irrigation to drip irrigation.

For instance, Gaibanna, a sugarcane farmer of huggelli Village, zaheerabad mandal, Medak district, was getting a yield of 75 tons per hectare by using conventional irrigation systems. The total expenditure incurred by him then was Rs. 28,000 per hectare and the resultant crop value Rs.1,95,000. Gaibanna’s net income was Rs. 1,67,000. After changing over to drip irrigation, he experienced a transformation in his fortunes.

His yield went up by 37 tonnes to 112 tonnes, crop value increased to Rs.2,91,00. In addition to this, Gaibanna’s investment on the crop decreased by Rs.6000 to 22,000. Thotla Mahipal Yadav of chinthalpet village in metpally mandal, Karimnagar district was able to augment paddy yield from 50 quintals to 90 quintals per hectare with an accompanying increase in crop value from Rs.68,000 to 1,22,400 and net income by 47,900 per hectare.

For water melon grower Srikanth Reddy, of zavala village in Aliabad district, drip irrigation was instrumental in increasing the crop value by nearly three times from Rs.1.75 lakh to Rs.5.20 per hectare from an output that had scaled up from 25 tons to 65 tons per hectare.

Cotton cultivators Goverdhan Reddy and Sridhar Reddy of yedirapalli Village, thimmajipet mandal, Mahbubnagar district augmented harvest from 4.75 tons to 6.85 tons per hectare and crop value from Rs.1,18,750 to Rs.1,81,525 per hectare. In addition to this, shifting from conventional irrigation to drip irrigation also fetched them additional returns of Rs. 62,775 per hectare.

Micro–irrigation or drip systems are generally more efficient than conventional sprinklers, because they deliver low volumes of water directly to plants' roots, minimizing losses to wind, runoff, evaporation, or overspray Drip irrigations systems use 20 to 50 percent less water than conventional pop-up sprinkler ...