IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/foreco/v29y2017ipap47-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social welfare losses from groundwater over-extraction for small-scale agriculture in Sri Lanka: Environmental concern for land use

Author

Listed:
  • Athukorala, Wasantha
  • Wilson, Clevo
  • Managi, Shunsuke

Abstract

Quantity depletion and quality deterioration issues arising from the extraction of groundwater have been discussed in previous studies. However, the literature reveals no systematic analysis of the possible social welfare losses due to the cost of both quantity depletion and quality deterioration. This paper therefore investigates the long run welfare cost of using groundwater for agriculture by including both quantity depletion and quality deterioration costs simultaneously. This is achieved through an empirical study of onion farmers in Sri Lanka who use groundwater for their cultivation. A significant social welfare loss is found in terms of both groundwater quantity and quality deterioration costs and which is likely to increase over the long run. This is shown to have important long run implications for land use management.

Suggested Citation

  • Athukorala, Wasantha & Wilson, Clevo & Managi, Shunsuke, 2017. "Social welfare losses from groundwater over-extraction for small-scale agriculture in Sri Lanka: Environmental concern for land use," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(PA), pages 47-55.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:foreco:v:29:y:2017:i:pa:p:47-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfe.2017.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S110468991730003X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfe.2017.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Conyers, M.K. & Hume, I. & Summerell, G. & Slinger, D. & Mitchell, M. & Cawley, R., 2008. "The ionic composition of the streams of the mid-Murrumbidgee River: Implications for the management of downstream salinity," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 598-606, May.
    2. Srinivasan, Jeena T. & Reddy, V. Ratna, 2009. "Impact of irrigation water quality on human health: A case study in India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2800-2807, September.
    3. Kikuchi, Masao & Weligamage, Parakrama & Barker, Randolph & Samad, Madar & Kono, Hiroichi & Somaratne, H.M., 2003. "Agro-well and pump diffusion in the dry zone of Sri Lanka: Past trends, present status and future prospects," IWMI Research Reports 44558, International Water Management Institute.
    4. Catarina Roseta-Palma, 2003. "Joint Quantity/Quality Management of Groundwater," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 89-106, September.
    5. Corwin, Dennis L. & Rhoades, James D. & Simunek, Jirka, 2007. "Leaching requirement for soil salinity control: Steady-state versus transient models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 165-180, June.
    6. Selliah Thiruchelvam & S. Pathmarajah, 1999. "An Economic Analysis of Salinity Problems in the Mahaweli River System H Irrigation Scheme in Sri Lanka," EEPSEA Research Report rr1999082, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), revised Aug 1999.
    7. Knapp, Keith C. & Baerenklau, Kenneth A., 2006. "Ground Water Quantity and Quality Management: Agricultural Production and Aquifer Salinization over Long Time Scales," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-26, December.
    8. Brown, Gardner, Jr, 1974. "An Optimal Program for Managing Common Property Resources with Congestion Externalities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 163-173, Jan.-Feb..
    9. Douglas M. Larson & Gloria E. Helfand & Brett W. House, 1996. "Second-Best Tax Policies to Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(4), pages 1108-1117.
    10. Rubio, Santiago J. & Casino, Begona, 2001. "Competitive versus efficient extraction of a common property resource: The groundwater case," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1117-1137, August.
    11. Donna J. Lee & Richard E. Howitt, 1996. "Modeling Regional Agricultural Production and Salinity Control Alternatives for Water Quality Policy Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(1), pages 41-53.
    12. Wichelns, Dennis, 1999. "An economic model of waterlogging and salinization in arid regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 475-491, September.
    13. Basharat A. Pitafi & James A. Roumasset, 2009. "Pareto-Improving Water Management over Space and Time: The Honolulu Case," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(1), pages 138-153.
    14. Fleming, R. A. & Adams, R. M., 1997. "The Importance of Site-Specific Information in the Design of Policies to Control Pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 347-358, July.
    15. Khan, Shahbaz & Rana, Tariq & Hanjra, Munir A. & Zirilli, John, 2009. "Water markets and soil salinity nexus: Can minimum irrigation intensities address the issue?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 493-503, March.
    16. Roseta-Palma, Catarina, 2002. "Groundwater Management When Water Quality Is Endogenous," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 93-105, July.
    17. Diwakara, H. & Chandrakanth, M.G., 2007. "Beating negative externality through groundwater recharge in India: a resource economic analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 271-296, April.
    18. Richard L. Gardner & Robert A. Young, 1988. "Assessing Strategies for Control of Irrigation-Induced Salinity in the Upper Colorado River Basin," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(1), pages 37-49.
    19. Linda K. Lee, 1998. "Groundwater Quality and Farm Income: What Have We Learned?," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 20(1), pages 168-185.
    20. Howe, Charles W., 2002. "Policy issues and institutional impediments in the management of groundwater: lessons from case studies," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(4), pages 625-641, October.
    21. Kijne, J. W. & Prathapar, S. A. & Woperis, M. C. S. & Sahrawat, K. L., 1998. "How to manage salinity in irrigated lands: a selective review with particular reference to irrigation in developing countries," IWMI Books, Reports H009257, International Water Management Institute.
    22. Hellegers, Petra & Zilberman, David & van Ierland, Ekko, 2001. "Dynamics of agricultural groundwater extraction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 303-311, May.
    23. Howe, Charles W., 2002. "Policy issues and institutional impediments in the management of groundwater: lessons from case studies," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(4), pages 605-616, October.
    24. Bystrom, Olof, 1998. "The nitrogen abatement cost in wetlands," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 321-331, September.
    25. Kumar, M. Dinesh, 2005. "Impact of electricity prices and volumetric water allocation on energy and groundwater demand management:: analysis from Western India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 39-51, January.
    26. Shiferaw, Bekele & Reddy, V. Ratna & Wani, Suhas P., 2008. "Watershed externalities, shifting cropping patterns and groundwater depletion in Indian semi-arid villages: The effect of alternative water pricing policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 327-340, September.
    27. Reddy, V. Ratna, 2005. "Costs of resource depletion externalities: a study of groundwater overexploitation in Andhra Pradesh, India," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 533-556, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wasantha Athukorala & Clevo Wilson, 2012. "Groundwater overuse and farm-level technical inefficiency: evidence from Sri Lanka," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 279, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    2. Esteban, Encarna & Albiac, José, 2011. "Groundwater and ecosystems damages: Questioning the Gisser-Sánchez effect," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2062-2069, September.
    3. Shiferaw, Bekele & Reddy, V. Ratna & Wani, Suhas P., 2008. "Watershed externalities, shifting cropping patterns and groundwater depletion in Indian semi-arid villages: The effect of alternative water pricing policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 327-340, September.
    4. Hellegers, Petra & Zilberman, David & van Ierland, Ekko, 2001. "Dynamics of agricultural groundwater extraction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 303-311, May.
    5. Alain Ayong Le Kama & Agnès Tomini, 2012. "Water Conservation versus Soil Salinity Control," Working Papers hal-04141151, HAL.
    6. James Roumasset & Christopher Wada, 2012. "The Economics of Groundwater," Working Papers 201211, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    7. Stahn, Hubert & Tomini, Agnes, 2021. "Externality and common-pool resources: The case of artesian aquifers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Kovacs, Kent F. & Wailes, Eric & West, Grant & Popp, Jennie & Bektemirov, Kuatbay, 2014. "Optimal Spatial-Dynamic Management of Groundwater Conservation and Surface Water Quality with On-Farm Reservoirs," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1-28, November.
    9. Brady, Mark, 2003. "The relative cost-efficiency of arable nitrogen management in Sweden," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 53-70, November.
    10. Shanxia Sun & Juan P. Sesmero & Karina Schoengold, 2016. "The role of common pool problems in irrigation inefficiency: a case study in groundwater pumping in Mexico," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(1), pages 117-127, January.
    11. Phoebe Koundouri, 2004. "Current Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 703-740, December.
    12. repec:hae:wpaper:2012-5 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Sanchari Ghosh & Keith Willett, 2012. "Empirical Assessment of the quantity-quality tradeoff for the Ogallala: A case study from West Texas," Economics Working Paper Series 1201, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.
    14. Reinelt, Peter, 2020. "Spatial-dynamic seawater intrusion and pumping cost externalities in a confined aquifer," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Lichtenberg, Erik, 2002. "Agriculture and the environment," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 1249-1313, Elsevier.
    16. Zekri, Slim, 2008. "Using economic incentives and regulations to reduce seawater intrusion in the Batinah coastal area of Oman," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 243-252, March.
    17. Khan, Shahbaz & Rana, Tariq & Hanjra, Munir A. & Zirilli, John, 2009. "Water markets and soil salinity nexus: Can minimum irrigation intensities address the issue?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 493-503, March.
    18. Bouma, Jetske A. & Biggs, Trent W. & Bouwer, Laurens M., 2011. "The downstream externalities of harvesting rainwater in semi-arid watersheds: An Indian case study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(7), pages 1162-1170, May.
    19. Qiu, Zeyuan & Prato, Anthony A., 1999. "Accounting For Spatial Characteristics Of Watersheds In Evaluating Water Pollution Abatement Policies," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(1), pages 1-15, April.
    20. Stergios Athanassoglou & Glenn Sheriff & Tobias Siegfried & Woonghee Huh, 2012. "Optimal Mechanisms for Heterogeneous Multi-Cell Aquifers," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(2), pages 265-291, June.
    21. Hubert Stahn & Agnès Tomini, 2014. "On the Environmental Efficiency of Water Storage: The Case of a Conjunctive Use of Ground and Rainwater," AMSE Working Papers 1452, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:foreco:v:29:y:2017:i:pa:p:47-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/701775/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.