Impact assessment of soil reviving (Bhoochetana) programme in Karnataka: application of economic surplus model

Bhoochetana (reviving soils) is a novel mission-mode project to improve productivity of rainfed agriculture. It focuses on bridging yield gaps through science-led interventions for sustainable use of natural resources in Karnataka. The study attempts to estimate the welfare impact of Bhoochetana programme in holistic manner. The Economic Surplus (ES) model was employed to assess the distributional effects of programme on consumers and producers. Field data was collected from 60 farmers comprising adopters and non-adopters of the programme. The major interventions of this programme were application of micro nutrients and it was found to have significant impact on yield and income of selected crops. In groundnut, the total economic surplus due to adoption of programme was Rs. 2643 million from 2009–10 to 2015–16 with producers (72.56%) benefited relatively more than the consumers (27.43%). Whereas, in case of ragi, consumers (54.93%) benefit was relatively more than the producers (45.06%), with total economic surplus of Rs. 1933 million. Besides distributional effects, other important impact is, development of new farmer-friendly institutional arrangements to reach millions of small farmers.