An Economic Analysis of Dry Land Production in Tamil Nadu

The study was undertaken in Thirumangalam block of Madurai district and covered Sorghum, Black gram, Green gram and Cotton crops. Sustainability status was analyzed using Sustainable Rural Livelihood Framework analysis. Net income was higher for green gram and sorghum was estimated to be 12781 and 10081 per hectare, respectively. Technical efficiency was highest for black gram and lowest for Sorghum. 43 per cent of sorghum farmers are short of frontier yield and hence, suitable training should be given to sorghum farmers by the Agriculture Department to attain frontier yield. The farmers mostly perceived the decline in yield, decline in net income in addition to pest and disease outbreak as the impact of climate change. The highest technological mitigation was following of mixed/intercropping. The optimal farm plan suggested practising of dairying along with dry land crop activities which need to be popularized in Thirumangalam block by Agriculture Department as it achieved the highest net income. The sustainability analysis showed that even though the equity and physical assets was higher in this system, the migration has to be checking, savings and the irrigated area has to be enhanced. The sustainability analysis also showed that the dry land farmers lack in savings which might be due to a decline in yield of dryland crops which has to be arrested by suitable technological interventions of Agriculture Department. Likewise, the decline in a physical asset of irrigated area has to be improved by the construction of suitable soil and water conservation structures by Agricultural Engineering Department.