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Dyes are widely used in industries such as textiles, leather, paper, and plastics to colour the final products. People use natural sources such as stem, bark, leaves, roots and flowers to get different colours for dyeing purposes. In addition, natural colorants such as anthocyanins are known for their possible health benefits as dietary antioxidants. The objectives of this study are to extract the blue dye from the butterfly pea flower using maceration method and to determine the optimum condition by response surface methodology. The flowers were dried, grinded and went through the maceration method for the extraction process. Response surface models were developed correlating the extraction yield with three parameters namely residence time, temperature and solid to liquid ratio. The result from this experiment was optimized using response surface methodology to obtain the optimum condition at temperature 54 °C, extraction time 74 minutes and solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:37 to give extraction yield of 45.51 %.

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Treated wastewater (TWW) reuse is one of the strategic options for preserving available freshwater resources and ensuring sustainability. The success of any utility project is centered on public acceptance and utilization. A questionnaire is randomly distributed to 397 farmers to study the willingness to use TWW reuse for agriculture and pay for the reuse. The socio-economic profile of the farmers, satisfaction of water supply, and agricultural factors are considered as the influential parameters. Descriptive analysis, χ2 test, Mann–Whitney U test, and binary logistic method are used for statistical analysis. The analyses reveal that more than 90% of the farmers have willingness to use TWW due to water scarcity. However, most of them are unwilling to pay for the reuse due to their straitened economic conditions. The physicochemical characteristics of the TWW from a wastewater treatment plant are analyzed and possible reductions in the application of fertilizer quantity and cost are quantified. An attempt to improve the percentage of willingness to pay for the TWW reuse is made by detailing the economic benefits of TWW reuse. A significant percentage of the farmers who are contrary to pay for the TWW reuse initially have budged to pay for TWW at a subsidized cost.

Water productivity is the ratio of the amount of water applied to the field in cubic meter and the net return gained in rupees. Increased water productivity leads to an improved occupational value for the farmers. Tank rehabilitation allows for additional water to be added to an irrigation tank, increasing water production. Hence, this study is carried out to assess the net return for a unit of water used in the pre- and post-rehabilitated period of rural tank “Pelasur” in Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu. The findings reveal that during the post-tank restoration period, a higher percentage of tail reach and marginal farmers benefited. Farmers who irrigate solely with tank water have higher water production since their income per m3 is higher. The significant impact of tank repair was demonstrated using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS-21.0).