Enhancing water productivity through on-farm resource conservation technology in Punjab agriculture

Rice is a major kharif crop in Punjab and accounts for more than 80 per cent of the water use in this season. In the past one decade, groundwater table has declined from 18 metres to 27 metres. This trend can be checked to a large extent by using appropriate natural resource management technologies including laser land levelling technology. In this paper, economic and environmental benefits have been estimated from the adoption of laser level technology using farm-level information from the Moga district of Punjab. The results have shown that with laser levelling farmers could save irrigation water and energy by 24 per cent and obtained 4.25 per cent higher yields. The irrigation cost reduced by 44 per cent over the conventional practice, and water productivity improved by 39 per cent. The returns over variable cost were higher by 1000 per hectare with application of this technology. In sum, laser land levelling has a great potential for optimizing the water-use efficiency in paddy cultivation without any disturbing and harmful effect on its productivity. Popularization of this technology among farmers in a participatory mode on a comprehensive scale, therefore, needs a focused attention.