Drip Irrigation Helps Farmers Save Money
Farmer Jayashankar
and his son. The hanging pipe is used to water their
crop of grapes. This drip irrigation method has
enabled Jayashankar's son to attend college as he is
no longer needed to water the fields.
Photo Credit: Anita Gursahani, USAID/India
Krishnappa is a small farmer in a rural district
of the south Indian state of Karnataka. In April
2006, he received assistance from a USAID-supported
program and switched 3.25 acres of his 6.5 acre plot
from flood irrigation to drip irrigation. This
improvement reduced the use of his electric water
pump from 84 hours to 25 hours a week. Thrilled with
his savings on energy, water and labor costs,
Krishnappa convinced other farmers to follow suit.
Govindraj, another farmer, says: “Time and money
saved because of drip irrigation has helped me grow
additional crops and increased my income.” With this
additional income, Govindraj’s wife bought two cows
and now manages a dairy micro-enterprise. She can
also spend more time with her children.
Jayashankar, another proud farmer, can now send
his son to college for higher education as he is no
longer needed for watering the fields.
Naras Amma, a female farmer, changed her 12.5
horse –power (HP) pump set to a 10 HP one and
installed drip irrigation on four acres of land. The
new pump set works even with low voltage electricity
and has reduced pumping hours from 56 to 14 per
week. Naras has invested the savings in power, water
and labor in growing cabbages and other vegetables
and providing financial support to her extended
family.
These and other farmers benefited from USAID’s
efforts to optimize water and energy consumption for
farming groundwater-irrigated agricultural land in
Karnataka. The project helped local farming
communities develop appropriate solutions for
groundwater and energy problems, improve pumping
systems, and install low cost drip irrigation.
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