A Study of Availability and Use of Irrigation Facilities for Cotton Crop Cultivation

The agriculture forms the backbone of development by providing employment to the 52% of India's work force. It is a source of livelihood and food security for a vast majority of low income, poor and vulnerable sections of the society. The Agricultural sector plays a significant role in the Maharashtra's economy. It is the main occupation of the state. The agriculture & allied activities contributes good amount to the State's income. Cotton is an important fiber yielding crop of global importance. Cotton is cultivated on about 10.31 million hectares of land in the country which account 30% of the global cotton area and contributes to 22% of global cotton production. India is the second largest producer of cotton after China. In India about one-third of the total area under cotton cultivation is irrigated. Maharashtra has about 34% of the area under cotton cultivation with only 4% Irrigated cotton percentage. The 96% of the cotton cultivation Maharashtra is rain fed. The Irrigation for cotton crop is mainly dependent on the availability of Irrigation source to the cotton growing farmers of Maharashtra. The main irrigation sources available to cotton growing farmers are well, canal, Tube well and lift irrigation. In the present research is based on irrigation sources available to cotton growing farmers and their use for the cotton crop cultivation. The cotton crop cultivation types such as Irrigated and Rain fed are dependent on availability of irrigation facility. This research is based on primary data collection from Khandesh Region of Maharashtra. The statistical test Chi square and Correlation is used to test the hypotheses.