Decomposition Analysis of Income Difference between Flood and Border Strip Method of Irrigation in Cultivation of Wheat in the Malaprabha Command Area of Karnataka

The present study was conducted in the Malaprabha command area as many scientific irrigation methods were implemented by the RKVY project. The required data were collected from the 35 farmers each practicing border strip method of irrigation (scientific) and flood method of irrigation (traditional) in the cultivation of wheat. The data was analysed using the output decomposition model developed by Bisaliah (1977). The study revealed that the adopters of scientific irrigation technology produced 29.39 per cent higher income from border strip method of irrigation than flood irrigation. The increase in the income was further decomposed into different sources of change such as adoption of scientific irrigation technology and changed input levels. The scientific irrigation technology alone could contribute 31.74 per cent increase in income, while the contribution of change in input levels was found to be negative (-2.35 %). Amongst the various inputs, seed (-0.18 %), fertiliser (-1.36 %) and cost of irrigation (-3.07 %) contributed negatively whereas human labour (0.1.38 %), bullock and machine labour (0.76 %) and FYM (0.11) contributed positively to the income.