Adoption of Drip Irrigation Technology by Sugarcane Growers of Rajasthan

Drip Irrigation is an effective technology and efficient method of delivering irrigation water directly into the soil at root zone of plants and makes efficient use of water especially when compared to conventional methods of irrigation. To encourage the farmers for adopting drip irrigation technology, Drip Irrigation Programme is being implemented intensively in the Sri Ganganagar district by Rajasthan State Ganganagar Sugar Mills in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Rajasthan. The sugarcane is a major cash crop in some tehsils of Sri Ganganagar district. Sugarcane crop needed more water in cultivation so drip irrigation system plays a crucial role to fulfill the water need to crop. Three tehsils namely Srikaranpur, Sri Ganganagar and Raisinghnagar were selected purposely for the present investigation on the basis of highest area of sugarcane cultivation using drip irrigation system. The census method was used to select the user respondents. Further, equal number of non-beneficiary sugarcane growers from same tehsils were also selected randomly who have not benefited under Drip Irrigation Programme. Thus, total 60 beneficiary and 60 nonbeneficiary sugarcane growers were selected from the above mentioned three tehsils for the present investigation. The total sample size from the selected three tehsils was 120 sugarcane growers. Data were collected with the help of pretested semi-structured interview schedule. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of adoption of drip irrigation technology. In respect of adoption aspects of the drip irrigation system, “spacing between two emitters and lateral” was widely adopted by the farmers. Whereas, the farmers had least adoption of “system information” regarding drip irrigation system. Beneficiary respondents had high adoption level as compared to nonbeneficiary respondents. The results of the study also depicted that a positive and significant association found between the adoption of drip irrigation system with some selected characteristics like education, annual income, land holding and occupation.