Agricultural Economics Research Review

The priority of government in enhancing farm income of historically low-yield areas in semiarid tracts of Karnataka is focused on increasing the efficiency in crop productivity and natural resource use. The land resource inventory is basically aimed at deriving comprehensive information on natural resources for designing micro-level land-use planning and for enhancing land productivity and farm income. In view of this, This paper has explored the economic viability of generating the soil survey information (1:12,500 scale) to minimize the cost of production thorough site-specific nutrient management in Garakahalli microwatershed, Karnataka. The study has shown that the per hectare cost of improved method of soil survey (using PAN+LISS III imagery) was higher at 264 over conventional method of soil survey costing 337. Improved method of soil survey can minimize the cost up to 22 per cent in field survey. The economic viability of soil map was assessed by estimating fertilizer requirement with and without soil information. The impact in change in fertilizer application of finger millet production on the basis of soil information can reduce application of nitrogen by 5265 kg and of phosphorus by 4661 kg with improvement of 1054 quintals of yield with economic benefits of 8.43 lakh in the watershed area of 527 ha. The study has found that the benefits of soil survey in site-specific fertilizer management in finger millet are reflected in the Benefit Cost Ratio 1:2.85 and the additional income due to soil management of 1600 per ha. The soil information is useful in minimizing fertilizer cost and enhancing farm income. The investment in soil survey and fertility management is economically viable at the watershed level.