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The present study assessed the status of farm level agricultural sustainability for rainfed and irrigated farmers in Raichur and Yadgir districts of North Eastern Karnataka by constructing Farmers Sustainability Index (FSI) encompassing four component indicators of farm level sustainability viz., Economically sustainable farming practices, Environmentally sustainable farming practices, Sustainable crop production practices and Socio economic factors. The primary data on 33 variables was collected from the 240 farmers which comprised 120 irrigated and 120 rainfed farmers. The results of the study showed that in both the districts majority of the rainfed farmers 45 per cent in Raichur and 55 per cent in Yadgir were sustainable compared to irrigated farmers where 70 per cent in Yadigr district and about 53 per cent in Raichur district comes under unsustainable category. In irrigated area the actual mean score of the three components of farm level agricultural sustainability were above the expected mean score except for the component environmentally sustainable farming practices (0.49 in Raichur district and 0.44 in Yadgir district ) which was lower than the expected mean score (0.60). However, in rainfed area the actual mean scores of all the components were above the expected average score, as majority of rainfed farmers fallowed economically and environmentally sustainable farming practices such as crop rotation, crop diversification, mixed and intercropping, application of farm yard manures, agronomic method of plant protection and cultural method of weed management. There is a need to promote the sustainable farming practices such as judicial use of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals, adaption of efficient water use techniques and Integrated Pest Management techniques, use of organic manures and diversification of farm activities in the irrigated areas of both the districts. In addition, educating the farmers about agricultural sustainability and resource conservation will improve the agricultural sustainability of farmers at farm level in North Eastern Karnataka region.

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The present study was undertaken to analyze the optimum extraction of groundwater in watershed areas for sustainable use. There was lack of efficient irrigation facility is the major cause for low agricultural productivity in Karnataka due to its over exploitation is leading to continuous decline in the groundwater table. The study was followed purposive random sampling for selection of micro-watersheds and based on the primary data all groundwater irrigated farmers of respective micro-watershed areas were interviewed. A sensitive analysis was carried out to know the groundwater used for optimal as well as sustainable patterns of groundwater management. The results showed that in study area, cropping intensity of Kavalakeri-4 and Ryavanki-1 micro-watershed area was about 160.25 and 157.52 per cent respectively. And Chattar-1 and Kumarkhed micro-watershed area was about 148.45 and 118.48 per cent respectively. The optimal groundwater usage for major crops showed that there was higher groundwater usage than required in crops like chilli, sugarcane, maize in micro-watershed areas of Koppal and redgram, onion, bajra in micro-watershed areas of Raichur district. By optimizing the existing water usage for major crops can reduce the overuse of groundwater indicating the sustainable management of groundwater in micro-watershed areas. Strategies for groundwater usage and optimum extraction must be based on adoption of cropping pattern, modern irrigation approach, rainfall and other agro climatic conditions for sustainable use of groundwater to improve livelihood of the farmers. Hence the government policy needs to be oriented towards these to motivate farmers to adopt micro (drip & sprinkler) irrigation. In addition, it is essential to promote irrigation literacy to enable farmers to use water efficiently.