Effect of salinity on paddy production in Alappuzha district of Kerala an economic analysis

Abstract

The present study entitled “Effect of salinity on paddy production in Alappuzha district of Kerala- An economic analysis” was conducted during 2019-20, with specific objectives of examining the resource use efficiency in paddy production, to analyse the impact of salinity on crop production and farm income and to study the major constraints faced by paddy farmers. The current study was focused on both primary as well as secondary data. The study was conducted in the salt water affected and unaffected paddy fields of Alappuzha district. Primary data was collected from the farmers through formal interviews. Farmers in the study area were grouped in to salt water affected and unaffected farmers based on the extent of salinity levels in the area. From each of the two groups, 25 salt water affected and 25 unaffected farmers were selected. Thus the total sample size was 50. Secondary data pertaining to water salinity, socio economic status and physiographic factors were collected from various sources. Average annual cost of cultivation of paddy by the salt water unaffected farmers was almost similar to that of salt water affected farmers and was found to be ₹ 1,03,322.85 and ₹ 1,04,145.13 per hectare respectively. In both the case of the unaffected and affected farmers, per cent share of hired labour in the total cost A1 was highest followed by machine labour. The average cost of production of paddy by the salt water unaffected and the affected farmers were ₹ 17,200 and ₹ 27,398 per tonne respectively. Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted separately for rice production among salt water affected and unaffected farmers to examine the resource use efficiency. The results showed that R2 value for salt water unaffected and affected paddy cultivation was 0.90 and 0.89 respectively and it indicated good fit of both the regression models. Marginal productivity analysis for examining the allocative efficiency showed that, all the variables except manures and fertilizers were having a K value of more than unity, indicated the suboptimal utilization of the resources. The average rice yield obtained from paddy cultivation in the salt water unaffected and affected area was 6.01 and 3.80 tonnes per hectare respectively. Chow test was used to analyse the effect of salinity on rice production. The test revealed significant differences in regression coefficients and hence concluded that the two groups differ significantly. Farmers in salt water unaffected areas obtained a gross income of ₹ 1,61,883.36 per hectare while farmers in salt water affected area obtained ₹ 1,02,443.05 per hectare. Farming in salt water unaffected areas were highly profitable at cost C with a B-C ratio of 1.57, but it was not much profitable for the unaffected farmers (0.98). Weed problems and scarcity of hired labour was the severe constraint faced by most of the farmers from salt water unaffected areas. But the major constraint for paddy production in the salt water affected area was salt water intrusion. According to the farmers, main reason behind the salt water intrusion in to their paddy fields was the improper construction and maintenance of bunds. Majority of the farmers perceived that, there was an increase in cost of cultivation, usage of machines, market price of paddy, availability of seeds, labour wages, emergence of new weeds and use of adaptation or mitigation strategies for preventing salt water intrusion in Haripad over the past ten years. In order to avoid the problem of quality deterioration of paddy in the salt water affected areas, more researches may be directed towards the development of location specific high yielding salinity tolerant rice varieties in the years envisaged. Usage of majority of the inputs were under suboptimal levels, this component needed to be further improved by educating or training the farmers with respect to the economic efficiency of inputs. It was found from study that there was overutilization of fertilizer in the study area. Hence, soil test based fertilizer recommendation could be suggested for farmers in Haripad. The conflicting needs by paddy farmers and fish farmers in the case of salt water intrusion need to be addressed properly. Institutional measures may be made more effective, which is the most important factor to address the issue of salt water intrusion.