Appraising efficiency of resources under drip and conventional irrigation methods to enhance farmers’ income in banana: A study of south Gujarat

Abstract

The efficiency of resource use is imperative to improve the productivity, profitability and cost saving in agriculture. The present study investigates the comparative resource use efficiency between drip and conventionally irrigated banana farms in South Gujarat region. Primary data were collected from 240 banana growers (120 drip farms and 120 Conventional farms) using multistage random sampling technique. Cobb-Douglas production function and marginal analysis of resource use techniques were used to compute the resource use and allocative efficiency. The results revealed that drip irrigated farms exhibited an increasing returns to scale as compared to conventionally irrigated farms which showed decreasing returns to scale. The MVPs of variables like banana seedlings, PPC and FYM were found to more than unity indicating scope for increased use of these inputs while the MVPs of chemical fertilizers, human labour, bullock and machine labour as well as irrigation water were less than unity and hence were being over-utilized on drip irrigated farms. Similarly, under conventionally irrigated farms, seedlings and PPC were being under-utilized and FYM, chemical fertilizers and irrigation water were being over- utilized implying the need for restricted application of these inputs in the study area. Hence, there is a need to emphasize on optimal allocation of resources as per the recommended package of practices which will enhance farm productivity and returns along with economising the cost of cultivation on drip irrigated banana farms.