Impact of Micro Irrigation on Sugarcane Productivity and Profitability in Northern Karnataka

The study was conducted in four districts of northern Karnataka namely, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bidar and Kalaburgi to know the impact of micro irrigation on sugarcane productivity and profitability over the conventional method of irrigation. 120 farmers practicing drip irrigation and 120 farmers practicing conventional method of irrigation in cultivation of sugarcane were selected purposively for the study and thus the total sample size was 240. Purposive multistage random sampling procedure was followed for the selection of the samples. The results of the study revealed that the highest yield was obtained in case of drip irrigated farms (164.77 t/ha) compared to conventional irrigated farms (130.27 t/ha). Among the two methods of irrigation, the total cost incurred in case of conventional method of irrigation was highest (Rs. 180304.07/ha) as compared to cost incurred in cultivation of sugarcane under drip irrigation (Rs. 146007.96/ha). The irrigation method wise analysis of gross returns indicated that the gross returns obtained per hectare in case of drip irrigated farms was high (Rs. 297720.98/ha) compared to conventional irrigated farms (Rs. 230856.55/ha). With respect to net returns also, the per hectare net returns obtained in drip irrigated farms was high (Rs. 151713.02/ha) as compared to conventional irrigated farms (Rs. 50552.49/ha). Thus the cultivation of sugarcane crop in the study area was found to be highly profitable under drip irrigation as also supported by a high magnitude of returns per rupee investment (2.04) compared to sugarcane cultivation under conventional method of irrigation (1.28).