Team Renegade presents on drip irrigation and its use for cultivating potatoes and bananas in Gujarat, India. Drip irrigation uses 20-25% less water than traditional flood irrigation and increases crop yields by 20-40%. For potatoes, using drip irrigation on 1.45 acres yields 8,000 kg of potatoes with an input to output ratio of 1:5. For bananas, small hardened plants produced from tissues yield 30-35 bananas each, providing a profit of Rs. 197 per plant. The team discusses ways to further promote drip irrigation including subsidies, awareness campaigns, and reducing equipment costs.

1. Innovation 4 – Drip Irrigation
Case Study
By
Team Renegade
Arpita Sahoo | Jagriti Chhateja
Sneha Chaturvedi | Noor Salam Khan
1

2. Preface
Greetings from Team Renegade!!!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Road2Ideas Team for
providing this wonderful opportunity…
We appeal you to “Go Green” with Road2Ideas 2012 and request you not to
print this Case Study unless really needed.
Our presentation theme symbolizes our spirit of “Go Green” Initiative and we
request you to read “Go Green Tip” on Thank You Slide 
Cheers
Team Renegade
Team Renegade
2

3. Introduction - Drip Irrigation
 Drip Irrigation has been used in
Gujarat for the last 10 years.
 It was inspired by Israel and we use
the same technology
 We earlier used the flood technology
for irrigation.
 Used to produce potato, banana, etc.
 Tomatoes, Capsicum, and other
vegetables also grown
Team Renegade
3

4. Drip Irrigation v/s Flood Irrigation
Drip Irrigation:
Higher Production; Before: After = 2:3
20-25% Lesser Water Used
Flood Irrigation:
Uses more electricity as compared to drip
Uses more labour as compared to drip; 24 hours v/s 1-2
hours
Team Renegade
4

5. Drip Irrigation + Fertilizers
• Since Gujarat has sandy soil, it needs more water
Soil
• Now all fertilizers except phosphorous are available in soluble
form
Soluble • When the drip facility started, soluble fertilizers were unavilable
• Earlier fertilizers were added once a week
• Now, they are added every day in small quantities with ever
Frequency drop
Team Renegade
5

6. Potato – Sector Analysis
• Potato is the third most important crop in the world after rice
and wheat consumed by more than a billion people worldwide.
• China and India together contribute nearly 1/3rd of the global
potato production today.
• The map below shows the production. Area under production
and yields in India.
Team Renegade
6

7. Introduction – Potato in Gujarat
 The average area under potato cultivation in
Gujarat during last three years has been around
52,800 hectares, with production of 11,47,300
MT and around 21,741 kg per hectare yield.
 The dehydrated potato flakes can be used in
place of mashed potatoes. They are functionally
like fresh potatoes and could be used for making
traditional snacks like samosa, dosa, tikki and
parathas, industry experts said.
 India is a very insignificant player in the global
trade of dehydrated potato products. The
exports of dehydrated products from the country
are confined to neighbouring countries in form
of dehydrated slices, chips and powder
manufactured by small units, they said.
 Gujarat would soon get its first state-of-the-art
potato dehydration centre in Palanpur town,
having a handling capacity of 500 kg per hour.
Team Renegade
7

8. Cultivating Potato using Drip Irrigation
Drip
Irrigation
12-15 packs
1.45 acres of
of 50kg
land
potato seeds
8000
Kgs of
Output
Input : Output Ratio = 1 : 5
Team Renegade
8

9. Cultivating Potato using Drip Irrigation
Potato Seeds
come from
North India
Potato Crop
sent to
South India
Team Renegade
9

10. Banana – Sector Analysis
• India does not export even 1% of the total banana production and thus, there
is a vast potential for increasing this quantity, provided a Banana pack house
system comes up.
• Indian Banana production has increased substantially in the last few years,
due to increased adoption of tissue culture plants which gives higher yield,
consistent quality and production for longer period of year.
• The major countries to which India exports banana are U.K., Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Yemen Arab Republic.
• India contributed 23% to the global
banana production and 11% to the
total area under cultivation.
• Rising Banana productivity in Gujarat
as well as India is becoming a matter
of concern for post harvest facility of
storage and handling.
Team Renegade
10

11. Introduction – Bananas & Gujarat
 Banana is a perennial cash crop of Central Western
India having high water requirement.
 Banana is one of the major fruits crops of Gujarat.
This gives employment and income to millions of
people engaged in its growing and trade.
 Area under production is 46,300 ha with a
production of 1.9 million tonnes and productivity of
42.7 tonnes/ha. This is higher than the national
average (42.7 tonnes/ha).
 Small farmers use suckers of good quality
plants for cultivation.
 Big farmers use hardened small plants
that are made from tissues developed in
labs for production.
Team Renegade
11

12. Banana – Production Schedule
Tissues come in 1-2 inches of
Hardened to small plant (Rs. Sown and grown into Big plants
small pieces in black trays (Rs.
13/hardened plant) (Sold at Rs. 3 5/ kg)
8/tissue)
Team Renegade
12

13. Banana - Profitability
Input of one hardened small
plant costing Rs. 13/plant
One hardened small plant yields
30-35 bananas
5-6 bananas = 1 kg; 1 Kg = Rs. 35
30 bananas = 6 kgs; 6ks = Rs. 210
Profit per hardened plant = Rs. 210 – Rs. 13 = Rs. 197 !
Team Renegade
13

14. Gujarat Green Revolution Corporation
GGRC was No Queues; Only
launched 3 years a Form needs to No Bribery
ago by CM Modi be filled
Advance
No Corruption in
Subsidies also
Subsidy
given
Team Renegade
14

15. Secondary Research – Real Insights
 An estimate by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) shows that the average shortage of
power during the period April 2011 to February 2012 was as high as 71,200 million units,
which is about 8 per cent less than the requirement.
 The shortage of power supply is affecting the growth of agriculture, where electrical power is
used to operate pumpsets to lift water from wells and other sources for irrigation.
 Reports from different parts of the country suggest that high-value crops such as sugarcane,
banana, cotton, paddy, etc, have dried up due to irregular supply of irrigation water as a
result of power shortage.
 With rural electrification, the number of pumpsets energised in the country increased to
about 18 million which accounted for over 90 percent of India's total irrigation pumpsets as
of January 2012.
 During the sixties, the share of ground water irrigation in India's total irrigated area was only
about 29 per cent, but it has increased to over 62 per cent today.
 Today, the agricultural sector accounts for close to 20 per cent of India's total electricity
consumption; it was only around 5 per cent during 1960-61.
Team Renegade
15

16. Secondary Research – Real Insights
 The time required to irrigate one hectare of crop land under the
conventional flood method of irrigation is large as it irrigates the
entire land instead of crop. Moreover, the loss of water by
conveyance, distribution and evaporation is large.
 Under micro-irrigation, water is supplied only at the root zone of
the crops at the required quantity through a network of pipes.
 One hectare of banana or sugarcane can be irrigated within an hour
by drip irrigation method, whereas it requires 10-15 hours under
conventional flood method of irrigation. This reduces the
consumption of irrigation water and also electricity.
Team Renegade
16

17. SWOT Analysis
Strengths: Weakness:
> Since demand for food is increasing but supply > The drip system is more like a process and takes
of land and water is scarce, methods enhancing heavy money investment for installation
food productivity are in high demand > Effective purveyance of weedicide depends on
>After installing drip-irrigation system farmers use the quality of water running through the drip. If
anywhere from 30 to 50 percent less water, used with sandy/muddy water, the effect gets
depending on the crop, and yields have improve neutralized.
by 20 to 40 percent.
> drip irrigation is ideal for fertigation, which is
extremely beneficial for the plants.
Opportunity Threats
> Still less production per hectare compared to other > Converting to drip irrigation is a process. Each
countries; scope for more technological advancement crop and geographic region has different needs
> One must not ignore the banana waste which could and undergoes a unique learning curve. Therefore
prove to be a bounty if it were to be converted into fresh research must continually be done requiring
vermicompost. heavy investment.
> The Central and State governments have introduced > Lack of awareness of the profitability of
promotional schemes since 1990-91 which offer over switching to scientific ways of food production is
50 per cent of subsidy on the capital cost of drip set to hampering the spread of these technologies.
farmers.
Team Renegade
17

18. Stage I – Table Analysis
Rating the innovation on a scale of 0 to 5 (5 being the highest score) on each of the
parameters outlined in the sandbox, the self assessment scores are:
Team Renegade
18

19. Stage II - C.K. Prahlad’s Sandbox
HIGH
HIGH HIGH
HIGH
HIGH
MODERATE
Team Renegade
19

20. What’s the way forward
 Precision agriculture which involves the use of advanced positioning technologies,
like GPS, to tailor inputs, such as fertilizer and water, to specific and variable needs
within a field to greatly increase yields while also protecting the environment.
 Importing machinery which operates off of sensory output from bands of light
pointed at the crop, can be used for in-season nitrogen management, variable-rate
fungicide and desiccant, as well as crop-condition mapping and pre-plant variable
rate fertility.
 As of today, only about two million hectares of area has been brought under drip
irrigation, which is only about 7 per cent of its total potential of 27 million
hectares estimated by the Task Force on Micro-irrigation (TFMI), appointed by the
Ministry of Finance during 2004.
 If drip system is made available at low cost, the area under drip irrigation can be
increased at a faster rate. Therefore, measures can primarily be taken to reduce
the fixed cost of drip irrigation by promoting R&D activities.
Team Renegade
20

21. Way Forward - Drip
 Recently, the Government of Tamil Nadu also announced a scheme to
promote the adoption of drip irrigation in the State with over 75 per cent
of subsidy for marginal and small farmers. Similar schemes can be
introduced in Gujarat.
 If the government recognised drip industry as an infrastructure industry as
well as announced tax holiday for it for a specific time period, competition
can be increased, which will ultimately bring down the cost of the system.
 Studies have shown that slow growth of drip method of irrigation was not
mainly due to economic reasons but due to low awareness among farmers
about the real economic and other benefits of drip technology.
 Therefore, apart from the provision of capital subsidy, there is also an
urgent need for an awareness campaign through an effective extension
network, including aggressive field demonstrations.
Team Renegade
21

22. Way Forward - Bananas
 M. M. Mustaffa, Director, National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB),
said that for an individual farmer vermicomposting could help bring
down 50 per cent of the expense on banana cultivation. Besides, by
selling the vermicompost, one could earn at least Rs. 5 per kg and for a
hectare of banana, the vermicompost alone could fetch Rs.15, 000 to
Rs.20,000. Besides, vermiwash that could be used as a spray on the
plants could also be produced.
 Planting of tissue cultured disease free plants
 Adoption of fertigation and nutrient monitoring based on tissue analysis
 Invest in Banana pack houses to get technical facilities for pre and post
harvest procedures
 High-density plantation in double row system
Team Renegade
22

23. Sources
 www.dripirrigation.org
 http://vistar.nic.in
 http://greenas.in
 http://nhb.gov.in
 http://www.gujagro.org
 http://www.sfacindia.com
Team Renegade
23

24. Thank You
Go Green Tip :
Don’t turn on lights at all for as long as you can—
open your curtains and enjoy natural light.
Team Renegade
24