Reclaiming salt-affected land through drainage in Haryana, India: a financial analysis

The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in India is threatened by waterlogging, soil salinity, and alkalinity. To reverse declining agricultural productivity, a combination of surface and subsurface drainage, supplemented by improved irrigation management, has been identified as the most appropriate strategy. But subsurface drainage for salinity control is costly. Therefore, its benefits in terms of sustained agricultural production must be thoroughly investigated to establish its technoeconomic feasibility. The present study attempts to do this by analysing the cost of installing subsurface drainage, the direct on-farm benefits of subsurface drainage, and the financial feasibility of subsurface drainage. The site of the study selected for this study is Haryana State. The results show that, after the installation of drainage, land use intensified because a sizeable area of formerly fallow land was brought under cultivation. They also show that the cropping pattern changed in favour of more remunerative crops and that crop yields increased. These immediate gains from drainage are helping to increase land productivity, gainful employment of the farmers and, hence, farm income. The financial and economic feasibility of drainage in waterlogged and saline areas looks favourable, provided that sufficient water is available for leaching and irrigation, and that a sustainable solution for the disposal of the low-quality drainage effluent is found. With regard to the latter, creating ponds to temporarily store drainage effluent is technically possible, while not threatening the financial feasibility of the investments in drainage. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.