Production Possibilities in Catchment Areas Under Dharabi Dam in Chakwal

Water is a limiting factor for sustainable agriculture in Barani (Arid). However, rainfall is the only source of water the spatial and temporal variation of which is very high. Therefore conservation and management of this source is vital for agriculture development and socio-economic uplift of the area. This study was, mainly, also devised to address land distribution problems and consequent farm productivity in the study area. Furthermore, level of land distribution disparities was focused on to observe its relationship with different on-farm and socio-economic indicators including gross margins, cropping intensity, crop intensity and crop diversity, income distribution disparities and institutional credit availability etc. All of the aforesaid indicators were also assessed for small, medium and large farm size categories. The farmers were divided into two main categories irrigated and rainfed farmers. Land was observed evenly distributed in irrigated area while land distribution was found most skewed in rainfed area. The performance of most of the indicators i.e. yield, gross margins, farm income, labour productivity, income distribution, cropping intensity and crop diversity was found better in irrigated as compared to rainfed. While marginal factor productivity, irrigation productivity and rate of institutional credit availability was higher in irrigated area. However, rainfed area was always least efficient with respect to all of the quantified indicators. The findings of the research are helpful for the farmers of the study area in decision making among different farm enterprises. Hence it can alleviate poverty and help to bring food security in the deprived regions.