The Efficiency of Drip Irrigation vs Flood Irrigation in Coconut Production – An Agro-economic Study in Tiruppur District of Tamil Nadu, India

Coconut also called as ‘Kalpavriksha’ in Sanskrit, which means tree of heaven, because of its usefulness from each part of the tree. India is one of the leading producers of coconut in the world as India stands third place in terms of area under coconut cultivation followed by Indonesia and Philippines. Though coconut has several uses, it requires high amount of water for growth and it is about 800 to 1000 mm annually. The study was aimed to find the irrigation method, which would be efficient for coconut cultivation. Hence, to compare the yield, profitability and efficiency of coconut production among drip irrigated and flood irrigated farms, a study was formulated in Tiruppur district with a sample of 40 drip irrigated and 40 flood irrigated farms constituting a total of 80 coconut farms. The study found that drip irrigation reduces weed growth, pest incidence, etc, which leads reduced labour use and contributes to increased net returns. The net returns was also comparatively low in flood irrigated farm category Rs. 88962.76, as against the net return of Rs. 112374.14 in drip irrigated farm category. The difference in net returns between flood and drip irrigated farms was Rs. 23411.38 and it was about 20.83 per cent higher than net returns obtained from flood irrigated coconut farms. The results of benefit cost ratio was higher in drip irrigated farm category (1.51) as compared to flood irrigated farm category (1.42). This might be mainly due to the increased yield obtained in drip irrigated farms than flood irrigated farms due to better efficiency of production. The mean technical efficiency was found to be 76.58 per cent and 87.66 per cent in flood irrigated and drip irrigated coconut farms respectively. It can be concluded from the analysed results that the coconut production, profitability and efficiency is high in drip irrigated farms and hence the study recommends for adoption of drip irrigation for coconut cultivation, leading to sustainable water use as by the sixth sustainable development goal.