ABSTRACT
The present study analyzes the resource use pattern of crops cultivated across different size groups of farms in Tamirabarani irrigation system. Tamil Nadu has 17 major river basins, which are mostly water stressed. Any strategy towards the improvement in total food grain production cannot omit these potential river basins. With this in view, the present study has been undertaken in the Tamirabarani irrigation system in Tirunelveli district to explore the efficiency of crop production. There are 133 system tanks and seven channels in Tirunelveli district commanding a total area of 16161 ha of which 11031 ha comes under direct command area and the rest 5130 ha is under indirect irrigation, where the canal water is fed into system tanks and then used for irrigation indirectly. Coefficient Variation was worked out to study the variation in the farms across the scale of farming in different reaches. A three-stage random sampling procedure was used to select 180 sample respondents. The field enquiry was made during January to March of 2014. The resource use pattern analysis revealed that the productivity and the usage of different resources across small, medium, and large farms in the production of paddy and banana were higher in the head region than the mid region. Strengthening of extension efforts towards sensitizing all farmers about the technology packages for different crops by appropriate training and, demonstration, and in particular to the different size group of farmers in mid-region of the irrigation system.
