CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY
AND CONCLUSION
Water is the most vital resource for the existence of life on earth. It is indispensable for the existence of plant
and animal eco system and forms on essential element in the development of economic activities. No other natural resource
has had such on overwhelming influence on human history. The amount of water available per person in India has decreased steadily
from 3450 cm in 1951 to 1250 cm in 1999.According to the minister of water resources, it is expected to decrease further to
760 cm per person in 2050.It could be predicted with complete certainty that the World in the year 2050 will be largely different
from what it is today. Water sector will undergo dramatic changes in the years to come in order to keep with the advances
in technology.
As the crop is more sensitive to water stress for better growth and yield of the crop, the judicious management of
water is of prime importance. Water is a scarce resource for irrigation; optimum use of water helps in better utilization
of all other production factors besides increasing productivity per unit area.
The employment opportunities were meager and seasonal during the peak periods of sowing weeding and harvesting while
for the rest of the period during the year, there was no work. But after the bore-wells came in to being, gainful employment
was noticed to the tune of 305 days worker / year at present at against 150 days before 1983 – 84. Submersible bore-wells
acted as a powerful instrument for socio economic change in mittemari watershed program. It was clearly reflected in standard
of living, style of living, social etiquettes, attitudes, income and literacy level of the people.
Water resources are becoming extremely scarce. According to the projections made by the National Commission for Integrated
Water Resource Development plan, the requirement of water for irrigation, India will grow by more than 50 percent in the next
fifty years. The water requirements for house hold consumption and for industry would rise even faster. In view of this, even
after fully exploiting the usable water resources, the balance between the supply and demand for irrigation water can be achieved
only by improving the level of irrigation efficiency in a big way from about 36 percent efficiency in 1993 – 1994 to
60 percent in the year 2050.
Hence
the current study on “Ground water irrigation in Coimbatore district” with the following objectives:
1. To study the development of irrigation
potentials created in India.
2. To study the irrigation capacity in Coimbatore district.
3. To study the socio economic status of the selected farmers.
4. The study on ground water development and farm level in selected village
5. To study the suggestions from suitable
policy measures based on the irrigation project.
Data for the study were collected under the two- fold
method, primary and secondary data. The survey method was used to collect information on the socio economic factors of the
farmers in Theethipalayam village, Thondamuthur block, and Coimbatore district for the year 2003-2004.And the secondary data
is collected from Coimbatore district profile. The study implies the ground water irrigation used for the cultivation of the
different crops.
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The major findings of the study are as follows:
4.1. Socio-economic factors:
(i)
The maximum of 25 percent of the farmers are come under the age group of above 60 years, which noticed that the village
is based on agriculture for the past several decades. And minimum of 6.6percent of the farmers are come under the age group
of 30-40 years.
(ii)
95 per cent of the selected farmers are male and the remaining 5 percent of them were female. Hence both the sex of
the people where engaged in agriculture.
(iii) The
annual income of the 71.7 percent of the sample farmers are between Rs.25,000 - Rs.50,000 11.7 per of the sample farmers are
having their family income of Rs. Up to 25,000 and 16.6 % of the sample farmers
having their family income between Rs.50,000 – Rs.75,000.
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4.2.
Groundwater irrigation and cropping pattern:
(i)
93.3% of the sample farmers use the ground water during the month of may because of summer and during august only 20
% of the sample farmers the ground water for irrigation purpose. It is also seen that the period between September to December
is recharging period because of the south east monsoon in Coimbatore district.
(ii)
The farmers cultivate coconut with maximum of 57.50 acres from the total of 205.05 acres with maximum of 27.98 %. And
the farmers cultivate chilly and grains with minimum of only 4 and 3 acres respectively, with minimum of 1.95% and 1.45 %.
(iii) The
maximum of 78.3 % of the selected farmers are used bore wells for the past five years and with minimum of 21.7% of them are
used bore wells for more than 5 years to improve their crop cultivation.
(iv) The
selected farmers with 55.0 % are having their bore size as 6.5 inches and minimum of 16.7 % of the farmers having their bore
size with 5.5 inches and rest of 28.3% of the farmers are preferred to have 4.5 inches for their irrigation purposes.
(v)
The maximum of 46.7% of the farmers has dig their bore depth to about 550-650 feet and minimum of 11.7% of the farmers
has dig their bore depth up to 750-850 feet.
(vi) The
maximum of 83.3 % of the selected farms are found the water level in the
soil at 400 – 450 feet and minimum of 1.7 % of the farms are found the water level at 700 feet only.
(vii) The maximum
of 41.7% of the farmers are incurred RS. 40,000 for the digging of the bore well and minimum of 8.3 % of the farmers are incurred
about 1,00,000 for deepening the bore to found more water for the large farms.
(viii) The maximum of
98.3 % of the farmers have realized the cost and the rest of 1.7 % of the farmers may not realized the cost.
(ix) The
maximum of 51.7 % of the farmers would used groundwater by pumping it for about 3 to 6 hours per day, the minimum of 13.3
% of the farmer were pumping the water for not more than 3 hours per day.
(x)
By pumping 95% of the farmers would changed their cropping pattern with the use of the bore wells and minimum of 5%
of the farmers have not changed their cropping pattern.
(xi) The
maximum of 48.3 % farmers have changed their cropping pattern using the bore wells for the past five years. And minimum of
1.7 % of the farmers have changed their cropping pattern for the past two years.
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4.3. Relationship between size
of the bore well, area of cultivation and family income:
(i)
The chi square (c2) 6.037 is less than the table value (c20.05) 12.6. Hence the hypothesis
that there is no associate between the sizes of the bore well and family income per annum is accepted at 5 % level of significance.
(ii)
The chi square (c2)
11.589, which is less than the table value of chi square (c20.05) 12.6. Hence the hypothesis that there is no associate between sizes of the bore well
and area of cultivation is accepted at the 5 percent level of significance.
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4.4.
Variance between family income, size of the bore well, depth of the bore well, cost incurred and area of cultivation:
(i)
The value of F test is 4.012, which is greater than the table value (F0.05) 2.66. Hence the ANOVA showed
that the hypothesis that there is no variance between bore depth and family income per annum is accepted. It reflected that
there is a direct relationship between these two variables.
(ii)
The value of F-test (7.220) is greater than the table value (F0.05) 2.425. Hence the hypothesis that there
is no variance between bore depth and area of cultivation is accepted.
(iii) The
value of F test is 1.422, which is less than the Table value (F0.05) 2.269. Hence the hypothesis that there is
a variance between the cost incurred per feet and the size of the bore well is rejected.
(iv) The
value of F-test is 4.706, which is greater than the table value (F0.05) 2.250. Hence the hypothesis that there
is no variance between the bore depth and size of bore well is accepted.
(v)
The value of F test 12.270 is greater than the table value (F0.05) 2.250. Hence the hypothesis that there
is no variance between the number of hours per day water pumped and area of cultivation is accepted.
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4.5.
Irrigation and cropping pattern in different season:
(i)
During the karrif season the maximum of 105 acres are covered under the cultivation of grapes. Next comes coconut with
76.68 acres, 25 acres are covered under the cultivation of tomato and ten acres covered under cultivation of banana, and minimum
of acres are covered by the other crops such as curry leaves, maize, turmeric, papaya, beetle nut, jackfruit, bitter guard,
ladies finger, brinjal, with the use of ground water irrigation. With out using ground water irrigation, the major crops are
produced under only 6.88 acres. The crops that are cultivated without adopting irrigation are maize, tamarind, palm, teak,
cotton, guava, pomegranate and groundnut.
(ii)
In rabi season the maximum of 147 acres are covered by jowar, horse gram with 75 acres, black gram covered about 23
acres and bengal gram with 30 acre and minimum of 2 acres and 0.6 acres are covered by brinjal and grapes. It indicates that
the farmer doesn’t require much ground water for cultivation during this period.
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Conclusion:
The findings of the study reveal that the flow of adequate food supplies
to meet the rising demand of the unabated population growth is increasingly threatened by increasing phenomenon of land degradation
due to the soil erosion. Food supplies are to be increased for sustaining human livelihood by nearly two to three times over
the present level in the country to keep pace with the demand of the population projected to stabilizes at 1,862 billion in
2050 AD or so, whereas the cultivable lands that could be additionally brought under production is nil. Therefore, there is
an imperative concern and need to initiate soil and water conservation, water harvesting measures, providing protective irrigation
and to maintain soil fertility in the dry land and in the waste lands in order to enhance productive and production to meet
the rising demand of the population in the coming years (2006).
Let this study giving powerful messages that harvesting every drop of
water is a national priority. We shout lay special emphasis on localized, decentralized, harnessing of water resources.
The following are the problems and prospects of the study:
Ø Rainfall,
which largely determines the reliability of the different sources of irrigation quite often, fails and as a result of dependability
of major sources of irrigation becomes uncertain.
Ø The
endowed irrigation potential of the state in per capita terms at 0.08 hectare is comparatively lower than the national average
of 0-17 hectare.
Ø The
share of Tamilnadu in the total surface water availability works out to only 1.9 percent only.
Ø Almost
the entire endowed irrigation potential of surface flow sources of 24 lakh hectares of land had been fully topped in the state.
Ø Indiscriminate
exploitation of ground water and proliferation of wells have led to an imbalance between the rate of drawled and the rate
of recharge of ground water which need to be set right.
Ø Salinity
and alkalinity of land have threatened sustained agricultural productivity and production.
Ø Over
exploitation of ground water has led to its severe depletion.
Ø There
is a severe harming of biodiversity and genetic resources.
In view of the above problems, following recommendations
can be made:
Ø More
efficiency in managing the irrigation Large public and private investment for expanding the irrigation system to accelerate agricultural growth and to meet the needs of food security;
Ø Potential
from major and medium sources;
Ø Speedy
exploitation of irrigation potential from major and medium sources;
Ø Completion
of on-going projects, improvement in the utilisation of irrigation potential and expansion of rural electrification in the
eastern region and replacement of high-cost diesel pumps sets;
Ø Ensuring
a conjunctive use of surface and ground water;
Ø A
major part of saving of fetiliser subsidy be given to states as grant for irrigation expansion;
Ø Suitable
incentives be extended for advancing hi-tech irrigation systems like the micro processor-based drip irrigation technology
that has proven ability to save 25% chemical fertilisers, have the water used and nearly double the yield;
Ø Farmer’s
stakes in irrigation works be raised by conferring on them some degree of co-ownership in the irrigation system;
Ø A
comprehensive watershed management plan need be formulated and effectively implemented.
Ø The
recent water policy in the Tamilnadu State strives to improve the economic efficiency of water; agricultural price policy
and free power supply to farmers tend to promote inefficient water use practices
SUGGESTIONS:
Ø Setting
up adequate ground water organizations in the states.
Ø Departmental
boring and drilling operations.
Ø Technical
and financial support to the zilla parishads / panchayats.
Ø Encouraging
group / community activity.
Ø
National governments and International agencies should pay more attention and sanction substantial amount for
land development works in dry lands and waste lands to increase agricultural production for food security.
Future requirements:
Ø
Reducing cost inputs
Ø
Optimizing production with limited water supply.
Ø
Refinement of the technology for water harvesting, storage and efficient use of stored water.
Ø
Development of dry lands on water shed basis.
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