1Department of Economics and Sociology, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
2Division of Economics, Statistics and Management, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, 132001, Haryana, India
Online published on 13 December, 2019.
Precision irrigation caters to the water requirement of the plant and not that of the soil, thereby producing healthier and more crop per drop of water coupled with reduced costs and increased water use efficiency. The net irrigated area of Punjab has risen from 71% in the 1970s to 99% in 2015–16 against the national average of 34.5%. This availability of irrigation has served as a catalyst for high productivity as well as the production of foodgrains in Punjab. The laser land leveller, Happy Seeder and zero-till drill are some of the resource conservation technologies (RCTs) that have been adopted by the farmers. This paper reviews the land degradation problems in Punjab and the precision irrigation technologies currently being used by farmers to save water, resources and costs and to improve efficiency and profitability. Over the years, the share of irrigation in the total cost of production for wheat has declined from 4.35% in 1970–71 to 2.02% in 1991–2001 and 0.96% during 2015–16, while wheat production increased from 5.1 thousand MT in 1970–71 to 15.09 thousand MT in 2000–01 and 16.08 million MT during 2015–16. This indicates that irrigation cost has a negative relationship with wheat production while irrigation has a positive relationship with wheat production.
