Your search found 23 records
1 Scudder, T. 1975. The ecology of the Gwembe Tonga. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. xxi, 274 p. (Kariba studies vol. 11)
Human ecology ; Settlement ; Rain ; Population dynamics ; Land use ; Root crops ; Cash crops / Tonga
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 304.27 G969 SCU Record No: H0134)
2 Lecaillon, J.; Morrisson, C. 1986. Economic policies and agricultural performance: The case of Mali, 1960-1983. Paris, France: OECD. 174 p. (Development Centre series)
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 338.1 G208 LEC Record No: H03418)
3 Konings, P. 1981. Peasantry and state in Ghana: The example of the Vea Irrigation Project in the upper region of Ghana. Leiden, Ghana: Department of Political Science and History. Africa-Studiecentrum. 52p.
Peasant workers ; Irrigation programs ; Cash crops ; Land ; Colonialism ; Rural development ; Migrant labor ; Governmental interrelations / Ghana
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.3 G200 KON Record No: H04056)
4 Adams, R. H. 1995. Agricultural income, cash crops, and inequality in rural Pakistan. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 43(3):467-491.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 1628 Record No: H017494)
5 Courtois, B.; Lafitte, R. 1999. Improving rice for drought-prone upland environments. In Ito, O.; O'Toole, J.; Hardy, B. (Eds.), Genetic improvement of rice for water-limited environments. Los Banos, Philippines: IRRI. pp.35-56.
Rice ; Plant propagation ; Drought ; Traditional farming ; Cash crops ; Water deficit ; Crop production ; Crop yield / Asia
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 633.18 G000 ITO Record No: H026440)
6 Rocheleau, D.; Ross, L.; Morrobel, J.; Malaret, L.; Hernandez, R.; Kominiak, T. 2001. Complex communities and emergent ecologies in the regional agroforest of Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic. Ecumene, 8(4):465-492.
Agroforestry ; Ecology ; Farmers ; Small scale systems ; Cash crops ; Land tenure ; Rural women ; Social aspects ; Households ; Land use / Dominican Republic / Zambrana-Chacuey
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 5996 Record No: H029883)
7 Delang, C. O. 2002. Deforestation in Northern Thailand: The result of Hmong farming practices or Thai development strategies? Society and Natural Resources, 15:483-501.
Farming systems ; Cash crops ; Farmers ; Deforestation ; Environmental degradation ; Traditional farming ; Roads ; Settlement ; Afforestation ; Policy / Thailand
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 6144 Record No: H031004)
8 Chitrakar, P. L. 1990. Planning agriculture and farmers: strategy for Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ganesh Devi Chitrakar. 332p.
Agricultural development ; Agricultural policy ; Development plans ; Farmers ; Cash crops ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Land use ; Population ; Livestock ; Crop management ; Cropping systems ; Agricultural research ; Agricultural extension ; Agricultural credit ; Inorganic fertilizers ; Irrigation ; Seeds ; Field crops ; Marketing ; Postharvest technology ; Development aid / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 630 G726 CHI Record No: H043962)
(0.11 MB)
9 Matchaya, Greenwell; Chilonda, Pius. 2012. Estimating effects of constraints on food security in Malawi: policy lessons from regressions quantiles. Applied Econometrics and International Development, 12(2):165-191.
Food security ; Households ; Assets ; Ownership ; Farming systems ; Farmers ; Farm income ; Economic aspects ; Statistical methods ; Quantitative analysis ; Economic analysis ; Regression analysis ; Models ; Crop production ; Cash crops / Malawi
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H045551)
(0.20 MB)
This paper examines food insecurity in Malawi. Conceiving food security as tridimensional, it is shown using Quantile, logistic, and OLS regressions that food security in Malawi is a function of both supply and demand factors. Specifically, food security as proxied by dietary diversity, reported food security, and food end time is a function of farm level production as proxied by farm level incomes. It is also a function of credit accessed, age and sex of a household head, while access to the markets, extension information, radio ownership, assets such as housing and adoption of a cash crop (tobacco). Education and consumer worker ratio are also important signifying the role that knowledge and labour play in deciding household level food security. The results also show that the impact of the regressors on food security depends on the level of food security in question such that in general factors with a positive effect on food security have a greater impact on food insecure households than on households that are better off. Given the preponderance of evidence in this paper it appears that policies that seek to enhance market access, improve market opportunities, enhance extension services, enhance informal education, encourage cash cropping, and support household level consolidation of assets would be useful for enhancing household level food security.
10 Platonov, Alexander; Wegerich, Kai; Kazbekov, Jusipbek; Kabilov, Firdavs. 2014. Beyond the state order?: second crop production in the Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan. International Journal of Water Governance, 2:83-104. [doi: https://doi.org/10.7564/14-IJWG58]
Crop production ; Irrigated land ; Cash crops ; Cotton ; Winter wheat ; Food policies ; Farmers ; State intervention ; Water resources ; Water user associations / Central Asia / Uzbekistan / Ferghana Valley
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H046615)
(2.38 MB)
After independence in 1991, Uzbekistan introduced a policy on food security and consequently reduced the irrigated area allocated to cotton and increased the area of winter wheat. Shifting to winter wheat allowed farmers to grow a second crop outside the state-order system. The second crops are the most profitable and therefore farmers tried to maximize the area grown to this second crop. Although the second crops are the most profitable, only few studies have focused on this topic. Evidence is presented which shows that state control of crops has been extended from the main crops, cotton and wheat, to the second crops. Satellite images used for classification of main crops in two provinces of the Ferghana Valley for 2006–2011, highlight that the area utilized for second crops is dependent on the infrastructure that enables access to the water resource, not on the area’s position within the irrigation system.
11 Bhattarai, B.; Beilin, R.; Ford, R. 2015. Gender, agrobiodiversity, and climate change: a study of adaptation practices in the Nepal Himalayas. World Development, 70:122-132. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.01.003]
Gender relations ; Climate change adaptation ; Agrobiodiversity ; Women's participation ; Equity ; Living standards ; Households ; Income ; Farmers ; Crop production ; High yielding varieties ; Cash crops ; Rainfall patterns ; Socioeconomic environment ; Organizations ; Case studies / Nepal / Himalayas / Hanspur
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047703)
(0.88 MB)
Gender is seminal to agrobiodiversity management, and inequities are likely to be exacerbated under a changing climate. Using in-depth interviews with farmers and officials from government and non-government organizations in Nepal, we explore how gender relations are influenced by wider socio-economic changes, and how alterations in gender relations shape responses to climate change. Combining feminist political ecology and critical social-ecological systems thinking, we analyze how gender and adaptation interact as households abandon certain crops, adopt high-yielding varieties and shift to cash crops. We argue that the prevailing development paradigm reinforces inequitable gender structures in agrobiodiversity management, undermining adaptation to the changing climate.
12 Hussain, A.; Rasul, G.; Mahapatra, B.; Tuladhar, S. 2016. Household food security in the face of climate change in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region. Food Security, 8(5):921-937. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0607-5]
Climate change adaptation ; Household food security ; Food consumption ; Farming systems ; Agricultural production ; Cash crops ; Livestock ; Income ; Environmental effects ; Flooding ; Landslides ; Temperature ; Drought ; Rain ; Socioeconomic environment ; Living standards ; Migration ; Mountains ; River basins / India / Nepal / Pakistan / China / Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region / Upper Indus Basin / Koshi Basin / Eastern Brahmaputra Basin / Salween Basin / Mekong Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047993)
http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12571-016-0607-5.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H047993.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H047993.pdf
(1.09 MB) (1.09 MB)
This study attempts to understand local people’s perceptions of climate change, its impacts on agriculture and household food security, and local adaptation strategies in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, using data from 8083 households (HHs) from four river sub-basins (SBs), i.e. Upper Indus (Pakistan), Eastern Brahmaputra (India), Koshi (Nepal) and Salween and Mekong (China). The majority of households in SBs, in recent years, have perceived that there have been more frequent incidences of floods, landslides, droughts, livestock diseases and crop pests, and have attributed these to climate change. These changes have led to low agricultural production and income, particularly in Eastern Brahmaputra (EB) where a substantial proportion of HHs reported a decline in the production of almost all staple and cash crops, resulting in very low farm income. Consequently, households’ dependency on external food items supplied from plain areas has increased, particularly in the Upper Indus (UI) and EB. After hazards, households face transitory food insecurity owing to damage to their local food systems and livelihood sources, and constrained food supply from other areas. To cope with these, HHs in SBs make changes in their farming practices and livestock management. In EB, 11 % of HHs took on new off-farm activities within the SB and in SM, 23 % of HHs chose out-migration as an adaptation strategy. Lastly, the study proposes policy instruments for attaining sustainable food security, based on agro-ecological potential and opportunities for increasing agricultural resilience and diversity of livelihoods.
13 Papaioannou, K. J.; de Haas, M. 2017. Weather shocks and agricultural commercialization in colonial tropical Africa: did cash crops alleviate social distress? World Development, 94:346-365. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.01.019]
Weather hazards ; Climate change ; Rain ; Drought ; Agriculture ; Commercialization ; Crop production ; Cash crops ; Harvesting ; Exports ; Food shortages ; Economic aspects ; Social aspects ; Colonialism ; Models / Africa
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048149)
(0.91 MB)
A rapidly growing body of research examines the ways in which climatic variability influences economic and societal outcomes. This study investigates how weather shocks triggered social distress in British colonial Africa. Further, it intervenes in a long-standing and unsettled debate concerning the effects of agricultural commercialization on the abilities of rural communities to cope with exogenous shocks. We collect qualitative evidence from annual administrative records to explore the mechanisms linking weather extremes to harvest failures and social distress. We also conduct econometric testing on a novel panel dataset of 143 administrative districts across west, south-central, and east Africa in the Interwar Era (1920–39). Our findings are twofold. First, we find robust evidence that rainfall anomalies (both drought and excessive precipitation) are associated with spikes in imprisonment (our proxy for social distress). We argue that the key causal pathway is the loss of agricultural income, which results in higher imprisonment for theft, unrest, debt, and tax default. Second, we find that the impact of weather shocks on distress is partially mitigated by the cultivation of export crops. Our findings suggest that, even in the British colonial context, smallholder export crop cultivation led to higher private incomes as well as greater public investment. Our findings speak to a topic of considerable urgency today as the process of global climate change accelerates, generating more severe and unpredictable climatic extremes. An increased understanding and identification of adaptive and mitigating factors would assist in targeting policy interventions and designing adaptive institutions to support vulnerable rural societies.
14 de Bont, C.; Komakech, H. C.; Veldwisch, G. J. 2019. Neither modern nor traditional: farmer-led irrigation development in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. World Development, 116:15-27. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.11.018]
Farmer managed irrigation systems ; Groundwater irrigation ; Initiatives ; Traditional methods ; Modernization ; Irrigated farming ; Wells ; Food crops ; Cash crops ; Markets ; Agrarian structure ; Smallholders ; Land access ; State intervention / Africa South of Sahara / United Republic of Tanzania / Kilimanjaro / Kahe
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049169)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18304248/pdfft?md5=b48636491a19a986bdbfb32de90fda20&pid=1-s2.0-S0305750X18304248-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049169.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049169.pdf
(0.91 MB) (932 KB)
The debate around what kind of irrigation, large- or small-scale, modern or traditional, best contributes to food security and rural development continues to shape irrigation policies and development in the Global South. In Tanzania, the irrigation categories of ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ are dominating irrigation policies and are shaping interventions. In this paper, we explore what these concepts really entail in the Tanzanian context and how they relate to a case of farmer-led groundwater irrigation development in Kahe ward, Kilimanjaro Region. For our analysis, we rely on three months of qualitative fieldwork in 2016, a household questionnaire, secondary data such as policy documents and the results of a mapping exercise in 2014–2015. In the early 2000s, smallholders in Kahe started developing groundwater. This has led to a new, differentiated landscape in which different forms of agricultural production co-exist. The same set of groundwater irrigation technologies has facilitated the emergence of different classes of farmers, ranging from those engaging with subsistence farming to those doing capitalist farming. The level of inputs and integration with markets vary, as does crop choice. As such, some farms emulate the ‘modern’ ideal of commercial farming promoted by the government, while others do not, or to a lesser extent. We also find that national policy discourses on irrigation are not necessarily repeated at the local level, where interventions are strongly driven by prioritization based on conflict and funding. We conclude that the policy concepts of traditional and modern irrigation do not do justice to the complexity of actual irrigation development in the Kahe case, and obfuscate its contribution to rural development and food security. We argue that a single irrigation technology does not lead to a single agricultural mode of production, and that irrigation policies and interventions should take into account the differentiation among irrigators.
15 Kramp, J.; Suhardiman, Diana; Keovilignavong, Oulavanh. 2022. (Un)making the upland: resettlement, rubber and land use planning in Namai village, Laos. Journal of Peasant Studies, 49(1):78-100. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1762179]
Land use planning ; Rubber industry ; Resettlement ; Highlands ; Customary land rights ; Concession (land) ; Land governance ; State intervention ; Institutions ; Communities ; Ethnic groups ; Villages ; Social structure ; Farmers ; Strategies ; Cash crops ; Households / Lao People's Democratic Republic / Namai
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049808)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03066150.2020.1762179?needAccess=true
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049808.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049808.pdf
(2.47 MB) (2.47 MB)
This paper highlights how farmers in a northern Lao village transformed their customary land rights – in the face of incoherent overlapping state territorialization attempts – into a territorial strategy to secure their land tenure. By planting rubber, some villagers have engaged in a crop boom to lay claim to land which has recently been zoned for upland rice cultivation (and conservation) as part of a state-led land use planning initiative. We show how internal resettlement, ethnic division and the influx of commercial agriculture in the Lao uplands intersect in a novel land use planning process and predetermine the plan’s actual significance.
16 Gebru, M.; Holden, S. T.; Alfnes, F. 2021. Adoption analysis of agricultural technologies in the semiarid northern Ethiopia: a panel data analysis. Agricultural and Food Economics, 9:12. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40100-021-00184-6]
Agriculture ; Technology ; Semiarid zones ; Cash crops ; Eragrostis tef ; Wheat ; Drought tolerance ; Market access ; Smallholders ; Farmers ; Population ; Rain ; Risk ; Households ; Models / Ethiopia / Tigray
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050330)
https://agrifoodecon.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40100-021-00184-6.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050330.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050330.pdf
(0.41 MB) (424 KB)
Agricultural technology change is required in developing countries to increase the robustness to climate-related variability, feed a growing population, and create opportunities for market-oriented production. This study investigates technological change in the form of adoption of improved wheat, drought-tolerant teff, and cash crops in the semiarid Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. We analyze three rounds of panel data collected from smallholder farms in 2005/2006, 2009/2010, and 2014/2015 with a total sample of 1269 households. Double-hurdle models are used to assess how the likelihood (first hurdle) and intensity of technology adoption (second hurdle) are affected by demographic, weather, and market factors. The results indicate that few smallholders have adopted the new crops; those that have adopted the crops only plant small shares of their land with the new crops, and that there has been only a small increase in adoption over the 10-year period. Furthermore, we found that high population density is positively associated with the adoption of improved wheat, and previous period’s rainfall is positively associated with the adoption of drought-tolerant teff. The adoption of cash crops is positively associated with landholding size and access to irrigation. The policy implications of these results are that the government should increase the improved wheat diffusion efforts in less dense population areas, make sure that drought-tolerant teff seed is available and affordable after droughts, and promote irrigation infrastructure for production of cash crops.
17 Heidenreich, A.; Grovermann, C.; Kadzere, I.; Egyir, I. S.; Muriuki, A.; Bandanaa, J.; Clottey, J.; Ndungu, J.; Blockeel, J.; Muller, A.; Stolze, M.; Schader, C. 2022. Sustainable intensification pathways in Sub-Saharan Africa: assessing eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production. Agricultural Systems, 195:103304. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103304]
Crop production ; Cash crops ; Smallholders ; Sustainable intensification ; Cocoa ; Coffee ; Macadamia ; Mangoes ; Environmental impact ; Economic value ; Organic farming ; Case studies ; Soil fertility ; Soil erosion ; Households / Africa South of Sahara / Ghana / Kenya
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050777)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X21002572/pdfft?md5=84b0f1382c836fb544361f4799e0ecd3&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X21002572-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050777.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050777.pdf
(1.18 MB) (1.18 MB)
CONTEXT: Eco-efficiency offers a promising approach for the sustainable intensification of production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is widely used for eco-efficiency analyses, is however sensitive to outliers and the analysis of the influence of external factors in the second stage requires the separability assumption to hold. Order-m estimators are proposed to overcome those disadvantages, but have been rarely applied in eco-efficiency analysis.
OBJECTIVE: This paper assesses the eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production in Ghana and Kenya. It examines factors influencing eco-efficiency scores and in doing so, tests the application of order-m frontiers as a promising method for eco-efficiency analysis in the agricultural context.
METHODS: The analysis is performed for four selected perennial crop cases, namely cocoa, coffee, macadamia, and mango, applying DEA as well as the order-m approach to a comprehensive empirical dataset. Seven relevant environmental pressures as well as determining factors around capacity development, farm and farmer features, and crop production environment are considered.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of eco-efficiency estimates among coffee farms showed the widest spread, which indicates the greatest potential to increase eco-efficiency. However, also the dispersion of scores within the other crop cases suggests room for improvements of eco-efficiency within the current production context. The subsequent analysis of determinants based on the order-m scores revealed that eco-efficiency scores were strongly influenced by variables, which measure capacity development, and resource endowments, such as labor and land, whereas the crop production environment had some influence, but results were unspecific. Generally, a positive effect is highly context-specific. The results underline the importance of designing effective training modalities and policies that allow knowledge to be put into practice, which involves the creation of marketing opportunities, the provision of targeted and regular advisory services, as well as region-wide measures to build and maintain soil fertility in a sustainable manner.
SIGNIFICANCE: To our knowledge, this study presents the first attempt to apply inputoriented order-m frontiers to assess eco-efficiency in the agricultural context, comparing its eco-efficiency rankings to those estimated with the widely applied DEA approach. This can inform the discussion on robust eco-efficiency assessments.
OBJECTIVE: This paper assesses the eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production in Ghana and Kenya. It examines factors influencing eco-efficiency scores and in doing so, tests the application of order-m frontiers as a promising method for eco-efficiency analysis in the agricultural context.
METHODS: The analysis is performed for four selected perennial crop cases, namely cocoa, coffee, macadamia, and mango, applying DEA as well as the order-m approach to a comprehensive empirical dataset. Seven relevant environmental pressures as well as determining factors around capacity development, farm and farmer features, and crop production environment are considered.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of eco-efficiency estimates among coffee farms showed the widest spread, which indicates the greatest potential to increase eco-efficiency. However, also the dispersion of scores within the other crop cases suggests room for improvements of eco-efficiency within the current production context. The subsequent analysis of determinants based on the order-m scores revealed that eco-efficiency scores were strongly influenced by variables, which measure capacity development, and resource endowments, such as labor and land, whereas the crop production environment had some influence, but results were unspecific. Generally, a positive effect is highly context-specific. The results underline the importance of designing effective training modalities and policies that allow knowledge to be put into practice, which involves the creation of marketing opportunities, the provision of targeted and regular advisory services, as well as region-wide measures to build and maintain soil fertility in a sustainable manner.
SIGNIFICANCE: To our knowledge, this study presents the first attempt to apply inputoriented order-m frontiers to assess eco-efficiency in the agricultural context, comparing its eco-efficiency rankings to those estimated with the widely applied DEA approach. This can inform the discussion on robust eco-efficiency assessments.
18 Bai, Y.-I.; Fu, C.; Thapa, B.; Rana, R. B.; Zhang, L.-X. 2022. Effects of conservation measures on crop diversity and their implications for climate-resilient livelihoods: the case of Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal. Journal of Mountain Science, 19(4):945-957. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-020-6426-3]
Agrobiodiversity ; Diversification ; Climate change ; Resilience ; Livelihoods ; Watersheds ; Cash crops ; Grain crops ; Vegetables ; Households ; Farmland / Nepal / Gandaki / Kaski / Rupa Lake Watershed
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051119)
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11629-020-6426-3.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051119.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051119.pdf
(0.70 MB) (712 KB)
Agrobiodiversity conservation is vital for achieving sustainability, but empirical studies on the effects of different practices or measures on crop diversity are rare. This study aims to estimate the effects of raising conservation awareness (RCA), building diversity blocks (BDB), and their combination on crop diversity among 240 randomly selected households surrounding the Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal. Based on descriptive analysis and multiple regression models, the results indicate that the two single measures had no significant effect on the numbers of crop species and varieties grown by households in 2018. However, the combination of RCA and BDB had a significantly positive effect on the number of crop varieties, especially for grain and vegetable crops. Considering that these crops are essential in the daily lives of local people, the results indicate that a strategy that combines both awareness raising and on-farm conservation measures can generate higher crop diversity and better serve the climate-resilient livelihoods of people in mountainous areas.
19 Pavelic, Paul; Suhardiman, Diana; Keovilignavong, Oulavanh; Clement, Corentin; Vinckevleugel, Jordan; Bohsung, Seinab M.; Xiong, Kong; Valee, Lengya; Viossanges, Mathieu; Douangsavanh, Somphasith; Sotoukee, Touleelor; Villholth, Karen G.; Shivakoti, B. R.; Vongsathiane, K. 2022. Assessment of options for small-scale groundwater irrigation in Lao PDR. In Re, V.; Manzione, R. L.; Abiye, T. A.; Mukherji, Aditi; MacDonald, A. (Eds.). Groundwater for sustainable livelihoods and equitable growth. Leiden, Netherlands: CRC Press - Balkema. pp.347-363. (IAH - International Contributions to Hydrogeology 30) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003024101-19]
Groundwater irrigation ; Small scale systems ; Assessment ; Wells ; Boreholes ; Water use ; Crop production ; Cash crops ; Farmers ; Livelihoods ; Households ; Investment / Lao People's Democratic Republic / Vientiane Plain / Ekxang
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H051160)
(2.09 MB)
Groundwater offers smallholder farmers in the lowlands of Lao PDR opportunities to diversify cropping beyond wet season paddy and thus enhance their livelihoods while reducing climate risks. This chapter focuses on evaluating existing and specifically developed groundwater irrigation options on the Vientiane Plain, and framing the findings around the livelihood priorities of different farming groups against a backdrop of agrarian change. Results show that cultivating a range of cash crops using shallow dugwells managed by individual farmers and deeper boreholes managed by the community can be profitable for farmers, while helping to increase the resilience of farming households’ livelihoods. Both options may also represent a viable investment option for farming households lacking access to surface water irrigation, and thus contribute to more equitable growth. The results identify drivers and conditions that incentivize and enable groundwater irrigation to generate positive development outcomes. It also highlights that farmers will not intrinsically engage in groundwater irrigation simply because a good resource is available, but instead, weighs up the pros and cons of a mix of biophysical, socioeconomic, technical, and institutional factors. Agricultural policies aiming to intensify small-scale groundwater irrigation should be cognizant of these nuances as they are critical to successful implementation and management.
20 Xu, H.; Yang, R.; Song, J. 2023. Water rights reform and water-saving irrigation: evidence from China. Water Science and Technology, 88(11):2779–2792. [doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2023.385]
Water rights ; Reforms ; Water conservation ; Drip irrigation ; Trickle irrigation ; Agricultural production ; Agricultural water use ; Water productivity ; Water extraction ; Grain crops ; Cash crops ; Water scarcity ; Water resources ; Land area ; Cultivated land ; Precipitation / China
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052441)
https://iwaponline.com/wst/article-pdf/88/11/2779/1340235/wst088112779.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052441.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052441.pdf
(0.60 MB) (612 KB)
As a market-based water resource management, the water rights reform (WRR) will allocate water rights to water users and allow water users to trade water rights, which can realize the reallocation across water users. In this context, the adoption of water-saving irrigation (WSI) is an important technical form to adapt to the reform. Based on this, this paper studies the impacts of the WRR on WSI using the difference-in-differences (DID) strategy. The results show that the WRR could increase the land area for WSI by an average of 13.63%. The WRR could promote the expansion of high-efficiency irrigation mainly because the WRR could promote the expansion of spray and drip irrigation areas, and micro-irrigation land areas, which are high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technologies. In addition, the WRR also could improve agricultural production by increasing agricultural water productivity and planting area (including the sown area of grain crops and cash crops), but the WRR does not reduce agricultural water extraction. Therefore, the WRR could increase agricultural production without increasing agricultural water extraction.
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