The investigation aimed to find monetary benefits of Laser Land Levelling (LLL) compared to conventional land leveling (CLL) in Karnal and Sirsa district of Haryana. These two districts were selected purposively because these have the highest area under paddy-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping patterns, respectively. The equation of
Adopting Laser land levelling helps in conserving irrigation and fertilizer significantly, and net returns are more under compared to conventional land levelling.
Subsistence agriculture has turned into intensive agriculture with the coming of the green revolution in 1960. Intensive use of fertilizers and irrigation by farmers has created pressure on the ground water table,, showing declining trends for the last two decades. Northern plains, specifically Haryana and Punjab, are called “”food baskets of India”” because they ensure the food security of the entire nation. We can’t compromise producing less intensively from this zone. Some potential benefits of Laser land leveling are: It is a climate-smart and energy-efficient resource conservation technology that increases net returns, B-C ratio, and decreases cost of cultivation and input use (especially of water and fertilizer). It supports diversification because it helps in good water control, which is required in vegetables. Also, raised beds are easy to create on leveled field. It increased cultivable area because of a reduction in bunds in the field. Also, it helps in better weed management. Laser land leveling (LLL) employs because the owner of laser land levelers hires drivers at peak season (positive labor displacement). This technology is not biased towards large farmers, and it is scale-neutral technology.
Almost every category of farmers has adopted this technology. Some limitations of using LLL are: Stubbles must be burnt or decomposed off before using laser land leveling. Better weed management (especially in cotton) leads to labor unemployment doing manual weeding (negative labor displacement). Also, it is more economical to use laser land leveling on big farm size because, on small farms, rig is continuously adjusted. Irrigated area is a pre-requisite for using laser land leveling. So, that rainfed area of the state will not get potential benefits from this technology. So, it was felt imperative to introduce a resource conservation technology (RCT) that can help inefficient use of water and fertilizers specifically in rice-wheat cropping pattern. Laser leveling is the most effective RCT to cure this problem of excessive use of inputs. Two techniques of leveling are practiced in Haryana
Laser leveling here means leveling of field within a certain degree of the desired slope using laserguided scrapper. Primary data were collected from 120 respondents from two districts Efficacy of one laser land leveling operation lasts for 3 years in case of Karnal and 4 years ins for 3 years in Karnal and 4 years in Sirsa district. It was assumed that during these 3 years and four years, farmers strictly follow paddywheat and cotton-wheat cropping patterns, respectively. An increase in crop pricecrop price counterbalances discounted interest rate or we can say prices of crops remain constant. MSP was taken as price of crop to estimate benefit stream.
Incremental benefit (₹/LLL) =
Where,
Incremental benefits in laser land leveling over conventional land leveling were calculated by using
Benefits of laser land leveling in Karnal district of Haryana
Incremental benefits of laser land leveling technology in Karnal and Sirsa are presented in
In Sirsa district, the effect of one laser land leveling continuous for four years, and on average, 2.89 hours are required to level one hectare of the field with hiring cost of laser land leveling @ ₹ 800 per hour. Hence, one-hectare laser leveling cost were estimated to be ₹ 2319.69. The market price of cotton and wheat was worked out to be ₹ 54.05/kg and ₹ 19.25/kg, respectively. Per hectare yield differential in cotton and wheat was observed at 55.06 and 250.21 kg, respectively. Hence, annual net benefits using laser land leveling were found to be ₹ 7212.61 while per laser land leveling operation, the net benefit was estimated to be ₹ 28850.45.
Benefits of laser land levelling in Sirsa district of Haryana
It is clearly evident from
In wheat, machine hours and yield increased by 11.36 percent and 4.86 percent, respectively. On the other hand, a decrease in the use of human labor, seed, fertilizer, plant protection chemicals, and irrigation was observed up to level up 7.06, 4.06, 4.68, 4.16, and 20.03 percent, respectively under laser land leveling as compared to conventional land leveling. The highest reductions were observed in irrigation. Whereas, in the case of paddy, machine hours and yield increased by 7.87 and 5.02 per cent, respectively. A decrease in labor, seed, fertilizer, plant protection chemicals, and irrigation was observed up to 7.81, 3.93, 9.37, 4.31 and 32.75 percent, respectively under laser land levelling compared to conventional land leveling. The highest reduction was observed in irrigation (
Input use pattern under laser land leveling and conventional land leveling in paddy-wheat cropping system in Karnal district of Haryana
Input use pattern under laser land levelling and conventional land levelling in cotton-wheat cropping system in Sirsa district of Haryana
In case of wheat, machine hours and yield increased by 9.67 percent and 5.15 percent, respectively. A decrease in the use of human labor, seed, fertilizer, plant protection chemicals, and irrigation was observed up to a level of 8.39, 1.75, 3.68, 5.51, and 19.33 percent, respectively, under laser land leveling as compared to conventional land leveling. The highest reduction was observed in irrigation. In the Cotton machine, hours and yield increased by 17.12 and 2.8 percent, respectively. A decrease in the use of human labor, seed, fertilizer, plant protection chemicals, and irrigation was observed up to 10.33, 4.88, 4.87, 2.53 and 15.97 percent respectively under laser land levelling. Irrigation was observed up to 10.33, 4.88, 4.87, 2.53 and 15.97 percent respectively under laser land levelling compared to conventional and levelling. Highest reduction was observed in irrigation (
It can be validated from the results of the study that the adoption of laser land leveling increases water and fertilizer use efficiency. Study revealed that yield and machine hours were increased under laser land leveling while yield and machine hours were increased under laser land leveling while all other inputs were reduced. Maximum reductions were reported in irrigation which was 20.03 and 19.33 percent in paddy-wheat and cottonwheat cropping patterns. Also, with minimal cost of operation that is ₹ 800 per hour, ₹ 34352 and ₹ 28850 net benefits per laser land leveling operation were realized under paddy-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping pattern, respectively. Thus, laser land leveling helps conserve the most precious resource on planet Earth
Authors wish to acknowledge Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University and all the farmers who participated in the study and made the study successful