Decomposition Analysis of Income Difference between Scientific and Traditional Methods of Irrigation in Cultivation of Chickpea in Malaprabha Command Area of Karnataka

This study was conducted in the Malaprabha command area where many scientific irrigation methods were implemented by the RKVY project. The required data were collected from 35 farmers each practising border strip method (scientific) and flood method (traditional) of irrigation for the cultivation of chickpea. The data were analysed using the output decomposition model developed by Bisaliah. The study has revealed that the adopters of border strip method of irrigation received 16.89 per cent higher income than those following flood irrigation. The increase in income was further decomposed into different sources such as adoption of scientific irrigation technology, changed input levels, etc. The scientific irrigation technology alone contributed 9.37 per cent to the increase in income. The contribution of change in input levels was also found positive (7.52%). Across various inputs, seed (−0.04%), fertilizer (−1.01%) and irrigation cost (−3.67%) contributed negatively, whereas human labour (6.35%), bullock and machine labour (5.72%) and FYM (0.17%) contributed positively to the income.