Investment in Soil Conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands: Does it Pay Small Farmers?
Bibliography B1339
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| Author(s) | Shiferaw, B. Holden, S. |
| Date | 1998 |
| Reference type | Paper |
| Source name | Discussion Paper #D-32 |
| Pages | 35 pp. |
| Publisher | Agricultural University of Norway, Norway |
Summary
Resource conservation programs in the past have been launched without careful evaluation of farmers’ intertemporal tradeoffs in undertaking conservation investments. Conservation investments often have long payback periods and reduce household incomes in the short-term. The critical question to small farmers is whether long-term conservation benefits would be sufficient to pay immediate investment costs, given all the constraints they face. This study uses biophysical data from two sites in the Ethiopian highlands to estimate the damage function from soil erosion and evaluate the profitability of conservation investments. Since farmers make ultimate land use decisions and lack incentives to account for externalities, a farm level cost benefit model is employed to study economic incentives to adopt proposed conservation
technologies. Results indicate that economic benefits to farmers by switching to proposed land conservation practices are very low. Except the low cost technologies like grass strips, returns to conservation investments are too low especially when the rate of discount may be high. Thus, small farmers are unlikely to adopt high cost technologies unless a substantial subsidy is
provided. However, subsidies are costly and often difficult to justify. The best policy option is to develop low cost methods that provide immediate benefits to poor farmers.
Themes
Market-based Approaches
Geographic coverage
Ethiopia
Related records above this one:
- Agricultural University of Norway (Organisation O0004)