Promoting Micro Irrigation

1
Promoting Micro Irrigation

• Outline of a Social Marketing Strategy for Mass
  Promotion

2
History and Spread

• Came to India around three decades back from
  Israel and the US
• Popular with Big Commercial Farmers, Small Scale
  (Way Below 1 of Total Irrigated Area)
  Narayanamoorthy, 1997
• Government as well as Non Government Agencies
  like Netafim, Jain Irrigation, IDE, Aprotech have
  been trying to promote the use of Water Saving
  Technologies

3
Research Covered

• Numerous Studies by Narayanamoorthy, Sivanappan,
  Dhawan, Shah and Keller
• Experiences of IDE in India and Nepal
• North Gujarat Sustainable Groundwater Initiative
  
• IWMI-FiBL-bioRe research project in Maikaal
• Netafims Experience and Strategies

4
Two Potential Roles for Micro Irrigation

• Poverty Alleviation
• Income Enhancement
• Savings in Input Costs
• Quality of Output
• For Women (IDE Nepal)
• Ensuring Survival of Distressed Agrarian
  Economies
• Water Scarcity
• Energy Scarcity

5
Benefits of Micro Irrigation

• Reduces Water application by 40-70 (Sivanappan,
  1994)
• Raises Crop Yields by 200 (Sivanappan, 1994)
• Reduces Cost of Cultivation (Narayanamoorhty,
  1997)
• Reduces Inputs like Fertilizers, Pesticides,
  Labour (Narayanamoorhty, 1997 ) by Increasing
  Efficiency
• High Benefit Cost Ratios (Narayanamoorhty, 1997)
  (Verma, Tzephal and Jose)

6
Constraints in Mass Adoption

• High Initial Capital Investment
• Drip Irrigating 1 Ha of land costs almost the
  same as the cost of 1 Acre of Farm Land in some
  parts of India
• A New Agricultural Concept (Shah and Keller)
• Subsidy regime distorting the market (Shah and
  Keller)
• Lack of Awareness and Reliability of Success
• Lack of Credit Facilities
• Water and Energy Scarcity

7
Perceptions of Non Adopters

• High Cost
• Cumbersome
• Storage Problem
• Clogging
• Unsure about benefits

8
What Are We Marketing

• A New Concept in Agriculture
• Water Saving
• Innovative and Sophisticated Technology
• Good Pay Back Period and IRR
• Labour Saving
• High Quality Products
• Higher Yields
• A Package Solution

9
The Gap

• Farmers want
• Low Cost
• Higher Yields
• Less Pumping Hours
• Simple Technology
• Generic Application
• Certainty of Returns

10
Bridging This Gap

• Shifting WST from Investment-Mode to Input Mode
• From something thatll provide returns over ten
  years to making it a recurring input cost
• From Custom-Solutions to a Packaged Solution to
  Farmer-Assembled Systems
• Farmers want to buy pipes, drippers, fittings but
  not drip-kits

11
Untapped Potential

• Selling Water Saving Technologies to Cow Farmers
  in North Gujarat
• They are adopting a New Livelihood Concept
• Pepsee / Easy Drip

12
Other Issues Raised

• Gender Dimensions
• Who Makes the Investment Decisions?
• Women are better savers!
• New Technologies
• Need for Comparative Studies
• Should Pepsee be looked at as a stepping stone
  for other WSTs
• Use of Plastics in Agriculture
• Does Micro Irrigation lead to Water Saving?
• Farm Level
• System Level

13
Operating Strategies

• Redefining Supply Chain
• Making Components Available
• Promoting assembler-cum-retailers
• Using the existing Agri-Implements Chain
• Product Standardization
• Progressive Farmers from Target Segment

14
Research Issues

• What people are looking for
• A Clear Menu of Products, their applicability,
  their comparative advantages and disadvantages
• Political Economy of Subsidies
• Is there Real Water Saving
• From Individuals Point of View
• At the Basin Level

15
Thank You