Which micro-irrigation system is most suitable for small landholdings in water-scarce regions of India?

Compare drip irrigation, sprinkler systems, and micro-sprinklers based on water efficiency, installation cost, government subsidies, maintenance requirements, and suitability for different crops and farm sizes.

# Aplly.xyz Case Study Submission

## Title
Which micro-irrigation system is most suitable for small landholdings in water-scarce regions of India?

## Type
Multi-Criteria Product Comparison

## Difficulty
Intermediate

## Estimated Time
60 minutes

## Overview
Compare drip irrigation, sprinkler systems, and micro-sprinklers based on water efficiency, installation cost, government subsidies, maintenance requirements, and suitability for different crops and farm sizes.

## Case Details

Function Focus: Multi-Criteria Product Comparison — manual reasoning, decomposition, and critical judgment (no spreadsheet or AI tool permitted in Phase 1)

Scenario:
You are the analyst at a fictional consultancy ("Praxis Advisors") tasked with answering: Which micro-irrigation system is most suitable for small landholdings in water-scarce regions of India?. You have a clean, synthetic dataset described below. You must produce a defensible answer using structured reasoning — no tool-assisted shortcut on the first pass.

Dataset Structure:
- product
- brand
- category
- price_rs
- subsidy_available
- subsidy_pct
- rating_1to5
- organic_certified
- avg_margin_pct

Tasks:
1. Define the evaluation criteria for the choice and assign weights to each, justified explicitly.
2. Score each alternative by hand against the criteria using the dataset columns.
3. Compute a weighted total and rank the alternatives; show the arithmetic.
4. Run a sensitivity check: change the top two weights by +/10 points and note whether the winner changes.
5. After the manual scoring, redo it in a spreadsheet and reconcile any ranking differences.

Expected Output:
A one-page recommendation memo: criteria & weights, scorecard table, final ranking, sensitivity result.

Evaluation Criteria:
Explicit and justified weights, arithmetic correctness, meaningful sensitivity analysis, defensible final ranking.

## Data Sources

| product | brand | category | price_rs | subsidy_available | subsidy_pct | rating_1to5 | organic_certified | avg_margin_pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hybrid Cotton Seed | Bayer | Seed | 850 | State govt | 40 | 4.5 | False | 35 |
| Hybrid Rice Seed | Syngenta | Seed | 1200 | State govt | 35 | 4.3 | False | 30 |
| Cattle Feed Concentrate | Godrej Agrovet | Feed | 1450 | NABARD | 15 | 4.2 | False | 22 |
| Tractor 35HP | Mahindra | Equipment | 625000 | PM-KISAN | 25 | 4.6 | False | 18 |
| Power Tiller | Kubota | Equipment | 285000 | State subsidy | 30 | 4.5 | False | 20 |
| Drip Irrigation Kit | Netafim | Irrigation | 45000 | PMKSY | 50 | 4.7 | True | 25 |
| Sprinkler System | Jain Irrigation | Irrigation | 32000 | PMKSY | 45 | 4.5 | True | 22 |
| Organic Fertilizer | Tata Rallis | Input | 550 | PKVY | 50 | 4.3 | True | 28 |
| Urea (46% N) | IFFCO | Input | 268 | Govt fixed | 0 | 4 | False | 10 |
| DAP Fertilizer | Coromandel | Input | 1350 | Govt fixed | 0 | 4.1 | False | 8 |


Full dataset: https://github.com/arora200/aplly_case_db/datasets/059-agriculture-rural-economy (synthetic, 12 records)

## Solution Frameworks
Multi-criteria weighted scoring, pairwise trade-off analysis, cost-benefit decomposition, sensitivity/robustness check

## Solver Guidance & Tutorials
_Solver guidance added by the pipeline (tutorial links) — see `solver_guidance` field._

## What You'll Learn
- Turn vague preferences into weighted criteria
- Build a transparent scorecard
- Test how fragile your winner is

## Tags
Micro-Irrigation, Drip Irrigation, Water Scarcity, India

## Registration Links
Register as Solver / Register as Evaluator