Estimation of the economic value of irrigation water in canal and tube well command areas

Abstract

In recent years, inequality in the distribution of tube wells and non-availability or non-accessibility of canal water during the rabi season leads to a lack of economic value fixation of irrigation water to crops. The main objective of this paper is to calculate the economic value of irrigation water for major crops in the Paliganj distributary of the Sone canal system and the Nalanda corridor site of tube well irrigation, Bihar, India using the Residual Value Method (RVM). Results revealed that the average irrigation water economic value on the basis of applied irrigation through the canal and tube well in the Paliganj distributary for rice, kharif maize, wheat, lentil, khesari, gram, rabi maize, potato, onion, and green gram crops was assessed as 3.73, 22.60, 11.67, 21.50, 27.42, 23.27, 14.75, 98.06, 84.92, and 27.17 Rs./m3, respectively. In the Nalanda corridor, the average irrigation water economic value of rice, kharif maize, wheat, lentil, gram, pea, mustard, potato, rabi maize, and green gram crops was assessed as 12.54, 24.61, 18.71, 44.15, 39.53, 37.85, 32.35, 96.93, 15.44, and 30.25 Rs./m3, respectively. HIGHLIGHTS The residual value approach was applied to estimate water economic values in the canal- and tube well-irrigated areas.; Water value for vegetable crops is generally higher as compared to field crops.; Economic value of irrigation water serves as the tool for decision-makers for uniform allocation of water to crops.;

Keywords

• canal command
• economic value
• irrigation water
• nalanda corridor
• paliganj distributary
• tube well command