Impact of Sprinkler Irrigation on Yield and Cultivation costs in Groundnut and Jumbo peanut farming in Kilinochchi District

Abstract

The adoption of climate-smart agri cultural practices has become essential for miti gating the challenges posed by climate change in dry-zone agriculture. However, the effectiveness of these practices remains uncertain due to low aware ness and poor adoption rate of such technologies, especially among small-scale farmers. Therefore, this study focuses on the adoption of a climate smart practice- sprinkler irrigation- by small-scale groundnut and jumbo peanut producers in northern Sri Lanka and evaluates its effectiveness of sprin kler irrigation adoption on farm outcomes such as yield and cultivation cost. Primary data for this study were collected using stratified random sam pling technique from 257 small-scale farmers en gaged in ground nut and Jumbo peanut cultivation in the Kilinochchi district in northern Sri Lanka. The dataset includes farm output measures, adop tion status, and socio-demographic characteristics of farm households. Among jumbo peanut farm ers, 124 are adopters of sprinkler irrigation prac tices, and 50 have not. Among the groundnut farm ers, 31 are adopters, and 52 are non-adopters. The impact of sprinkler adoption was estimated using propensity score matching technique. The results indicate that sprinkler adopters experience a yield increase of 178 kg per acre for groundnuts and 30 kg per acre for jumbo peanuts compared to non adopters. Additionally, the results show that sprin kler adopters experience a reduction in cultivation cost by Rs. 45,040 per acre in groundnut cultivation and by Rs. 59,399 per acre in jumbo peanut culti vation compared to their counterparts. These find ings highlight the importance of adopting of sprin kler irrigation as a viable strategy to mitigate the climate challenges faced by small-scale groundnut and jumbo peanut producers.