Farmers' perception of treated paper mill effluent irrigation

The utilization of treated paper mill effluents for irrigation offers many benefits such as conservation of water resources, conversion of barren land into irrigated area, addition of nutrients to the soil and plant and above all the reduction of pollution of inland water bodies. However, the utility of this effluent irrigation programme depends mainly on farmers' acceptability, adoption and management of the scheme. Knowledge about the farmers' perception is thus very much imperative for further advocacy of the effluent irrigation programme. The determinants of farmers' perception of treated paper mill effluent irrigation is a pre-requisite for the formulation of better programmes and strategies for the support of an unobstructed adoption and for the long-term sustainability of effluent irrigation schemes. The present study was conducted to assess the farmers' perception and the determinants that influence the adoption of treated paper mill effluent irrigation by interviewing a random sample of 120 farmers, using a well-structured interview schedule in paper mill effluent irrigated area in Tamil Nadu in India. The study revealed that there exists positive significant correlation between the perception and the characteristics of the farmers viz. educational status, farm size, annual income, mass media exposure, innovativeness and risk orientation. The response analysis of the perception revealed that treated paper mill effluent as alternative assured supply of irrigation water, conversion of elevated dry lands to irrigated land, changing of cropping pattern to sugarcane, increase in socioeconomic status of the farmers, incentives and technical inputs by the paper mill authorities and above all farmers' participation in planning, implementation and management of the effluent irrigation schemes influenced the farmers to form positive perception.