Economics of Gajni Farming under Different Farming Systems in Coastal Floodplains of Karnataka, India

Indian coastline is vulnerable to sea-level rise and the tidal ingress, and pushing up of saline water on to inland results in submergence of crop lands. As a result, these lands, particularly the low-lying agricultural lands, become unfit for crop production. Such lands are found all along the Indian coastline, including the Karnataka coast, where they are locally referred to as gajni lands. This study was carried out to identify the different farming systems practised in the gajni lands, analyse the economics and compare the allocative and economic efficiencies of these systems. The objective was achieved through a random sample of 160 gajni farmers who were personally interviewed using a comprehensive questionnaire. The production function analysis revealed that all the resources included in the production process had a positive impact on gross returns in case of paddy mono-culture. However, the farming systems were not allocatively efficient in input utilisation and farmers are not aware of efficient use of inputs. Farmers were most economically efficient in the two modern faming systems as the net returns were the highest. Both paddy mono-culture and mixed farming exhibited increasing returns to scale while the paddy/prawn rotation system and semi-intensive prawn farming were characterised by diminishing returns to scale.