Economic Affairs

Soil is the most essential input in agriculture, while eroded land suffers from depletion of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, organic and moisture content of the soil, and reduction in cultivable soil depth. This study assesses the economics of erosion control technologies. The study was conducted in Meghalaya, based on a survey of 120 adopters and 120 non-adopters’ farmers from East Khasi hills and Ri-Bhoi districts. The common soil conservation technologies adopted by the farmers were bench terracing, contour bunding, peripheral bunding, loose boulder bunding and check dam. Among the conservation techniques, bench terracing was adopted in majority (34.17 per cent). For estimating the economics of these conservation techniques, four principal measures viz., Net Present Value (NPV), Payback Period, Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), Internal rate of returns (IRR) were employed to check the feasibility and viability of the adopted measures. The results of the feasibility analysis for various soil conservation technologies were encouraging as it was evident from the study that all the adopted soil conservation has positive NPV, B-C ratio more than one and high IRR. Hence, farmers can be encouraged in adopting appropriate erosion control measures in their field as it can bring a positive return and enhance the productivity of the soil in the long-term.