Farm Typology in the Berambadi Watershed (India): Farming Systems Are Determined by Farm Size and Access to Groundwater

Abstract

Farmers' production decisions and agricultural practices directly and indirectly influence the quantity and quality of natural resources, some being depleted common resources such as groundwater. Representing farming systems while accounting for their flexibility is needed to evaluate targeted, regional water management policies. Farmers' decisions regarding investing in irrigation and adopting cropping systems are inherently dynamic and must adapt to changes in climate and agronomic, economic and social, and institutional, conditions. To represent this diversity, we developed a typology of Indian farmers from a survey of 684 farms in Berambadi, an agricultural watershed in southern India (state of Karnataka). The survey provided information on farm structure, the cropping system and farm practices, water management for irrigation, and economic performances of the farm. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis (Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering) were used to analyze relationships between observed factors and establish the farm typology. We identified three main types of farms: (1) large diversified and productivist farms; (2) small and marginal rainfed farms, and (3) small irrigated marketing farms. This typology represents the heterogeneity of farms in the Berambadi watershed.

Irrigation History Estimation Using Multitemporal Landsat Satellite Images: Application to an Intensive Groundwater Irrigated Agricultural Watershed in India

“…In the study area, this was challenging as available cadastral maps were established in the early XX century, and since then cadastral boundaries have often been divided into smaller fields belonging to different farmers. Currently, farmer's landholding is about 1 ha on average [13]. Generally, farmers like to diversify land uses in order to reduce the risk of crop failure; they often divide larger fields into small-size parcels even when the same crop is cultivated in all of them, to allow a diversity of cultural practices.…”

“…Firstly, farm plots are very small. About 94% farmers in India are having a land holding of smaller or equal to 1 ha, which is continuously decreasing [13,14]. Monitoring these small-sized irrigated croplands is highly required to access irrigation water use [15,16].…”

“…Farmers can adopt the rainfed and seasonal crops (e.g., wheat, maize, sorghum, sunflower, and beetroot) which consume reasonably less water. Finally, under water scarce situations, farmers often abandon long duration crops (e.g., sugar cane, banana, turmeric) and grow short duration (3 to 4 months) cash crops with multiple cropping [13]. All these factors increase the difficulty in assessing irrigated areas in the farming system.…”

Adaptation Strategies for Water Resources: Criteria for Research

“…The implementation aspects are considered, reporting the water right implications and interviewing stakeholders [13]. Robert et al (2017) identify three types of farms in India which influence differently the watermanagement policies. Although the study represents a remarkable effort to improve the knowledge of the farm system, the definition of a specific adaptation solution is lacking, as well as the future climatic context for which it would have been developed.…”

“…Although the study represents a remarkable effort to improve the knowledge of the farm system, the definition of a specific adaptation solution is lacking, as well as the future climatic context for which it would have been developed. Consequently, no evaluation of uncertainty and provision of implementation guidance is proposed [36]. Yuan et al (2017) propose a sustainable urban water system for Shanghai, China as adaptation solution to a possible further increase of the sea level and flooding events.…”