Question: A developing country is implementing a number of innovations to increase the efficiency of food production and thereby reduce its reliance on food imports. You have been asked to determine if maize production under a new trickle irrigation system is as high as the productivity under the old spray irrigation system. The new system uses less water because of lower evaporation losses. A decision has been made to implement this new system if it can be shown that maize yields are not lower than those under the old system. An experimental design is developed using 25 fields for each system. In the fields using spray irrigation, maize production averages 1,092 kg/ha with a variance of 3,600. In the fields irrigated by the trickle system, the maize yields averaged is 993 with a variance of 900.
a. Does Case 1 or Case 2 apply to this problem? Why? Justify your choice.
b. Should the new trickle system be implemented?
c. What PROB-VALUE can you assign to this conclusion?
d. Suppose the decision to adopt the new trickle system would be made only if it were proven superior to the existing spray system.
e. Other than the difference in yield, what other considerations would be important in evaluating the decision to convert to the new irrigation technology?