IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v155y2019i2d10.1007_s10584-019-02449-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social capital and resilience to drought among smallholding farmers in Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda R. Carrico

    (University of Colorado Boulder)

  • Heather Barnes Truelove

    (University of North Florida)

  • Nicholas E. Williams

    (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Abstract

Pressure of freshwater resources has intensified in recent decades, stressing agricultural communities worldwide. Research is needed to advance our understanding of the factors that support resilience. Past research suggests that social capital positively predicts health and well-being; yet, we know surprisingly little about the relationship between social capital and resilience to environmental stress. Some scholars have cautioned that tight-knit social relationships can also constrain behavior and undermine flexibility, which could undermine adaptive responses to environmental stress. In this analysis, we use survey data from 225 smallholding rice farmers in Sri Lanka to examine the relationship between individual-level measures of cognitive and structural social capital measured before a drought-affected season, and livelihood outcomes (rice yields and income loss) measured after the season. We also examined if membership in less powerful groups (landless, female, and poor farmers) moderated the relationship between social capital and livelihood outcomes. Higher levels of perceived social cohesion (a measure of cognitive social capital) were associated with poorer yields for both female and landless farmers; yet, the yields of male and landowning farmers were unrelated to perceived social cohesion. Likewise, landless farmers with higher levels of community participation (a form of structural social capital) experienced a marginally higher rate of lost income due to the drought. These data suggest that the relationship between social capital and resilience operates differently for different members of the community. Importantly, some community members may face a difficult tradeoff between agricultural productivity and maintaining social relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda R. Carrico & Heather Barnes Truelove & Nicholas E. Williams, 2019. "Social capital and resilience to drought among smallholding farmers in Sri Lanka," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 195-213, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:155:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10584-019-02449-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-019-02449-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-019-02449-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-019-02449-y?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. Thiruchelvam, S., 2005. "Agricultural Production Efficiency of Bethma Cultivation in Mahaweli System H," Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA), vol. 7, pages 1-21.
    2. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Glass, R., 1999. "Social capital and self-rated health: A contextual analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1187-1193.
    3. Townsend, Robert M, 1994. "Risk and Insurance in Village India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(3), pages 539-591, May.
    4. Fafchamps, Marcel & Gubert, Flore, 2007. "The formation of risk sharing networks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 326-350, July.
    5. W. Neil Adger, 2003. "Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(4), pages 387-404, October.
    6. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4392 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Andy Pike & Stuart Dawley & John Tomaney, 2010. "Resilience, adaptation and adaptability," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(1), pages 59-70.
    8. Narayan, Deepa & Pritchett, Lant, 1999. "Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(4), pages 871-897, July.
    9. Berkman, Lisa F. & Glass, Thomas & Brissette, Ian & Seeman, Teresa E., 2000. "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 843-857, September.
    10. Isenman, Paul, 1980. "Basic needs: The case of Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 237-258, March.
    11. Scira Menoni & Daniela Molinari & Dennis Parker & Francesco Ballio & Sue Tapsell, 2012. "Assessing multifaceted vulnerability and resilience in order to design risk-mitigation strategies," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 64(3), pages 2057-2082, December.
    12. Stefan Dercon & John Hoddinott & Tassew Woldehanna, 2005. "Shocks and Consumption in 15 Ethiopian Villages, 1999--2004," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 14(4), pages 559-585, December.
    13. Veenstra, Gerry, 2000. "Social capital, SES and health: an individual-level analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 619-629, March.
    14. Gray, Clark & Mueller, Valerie, 2012. "Drought and Population Mobility in Rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 134-145.
    15. Uphoff, Norman & Wijayaratna, C. M., 2000. "Demonstrated Benefits from Social Capital: The Productivity of Farmer Organizations in Gal Oya, Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1875-1890, November.
    16. Mark Pelling, 1998. "Participation, social capital and vulnerability to urban flooding in Guyana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 469-486.
    17. Cleaver, Frances, 2005. "The inequality of social capital and the reproduction of chronic poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 893-906, June.
    18. Annemie Maertens & Christopher B. Barrett, 2013. "Measuring Social Networks' Effects on Agricultural Technology Adoption," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(2), pages 353-359.
    19. Bodin, Örjan & Crona, Beatrice I., 2008. "Management of Natural Resources at the Community Level: Exploring the Role of Social Capital and Leadership in a Rural Fishing Community," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2763-2779, December.
    20. Marcel Fafchamps, 2006. "Development and social capital," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 1180-1198.
    21. William Easterly & Jozef Ritzen & Michael Woolcock, 2006. "Social Cohesion, Institutions, And Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 103-120, July.
    22. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2010. "Microeconomics of Technology Adoption," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 395-424, September.
    23. Linda Mayoux, 2001. "Tackling the Down Side: Social Capital, Women’s Empowerment and Micro‐Finance in Cameroon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 435-464, June.
    24. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D., 1997. "Social capital, income inequality, and mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1491-1498.
    25. Poortinga, Wouter, 2006. "Social relations or social capital? Individual and community health effects of bonding social capital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 255-270, July.
    26. Kirby, Kris N. & Marakovic, Nino N., 1995. "Modeling Myopic Decisions: Evidence for Hyperbolic Delay-Discounting within Subjects and Amounts," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 22-30, October.
    27. Rajagopal, 2014. "Technology Diffusion and Adoption," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 6, pages 148-173, Palgrave Macmillan.
    28. Margarita Genius & Phoebe Koundouri & Céline Nauges & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2014. "Information Transmission in Irrigation Technology Adoption and Diffusion: Social Learning, Extension Services, and Spatial Effects," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 328-344.
    29. Musalia, John, 2016. "Social capital and health in Kenya: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 11-19.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bekhzod Egamberdiev, 2024. "Social capital effects on resilience to food insecurity: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 435-450, January.
    2. Zain, Majdah Muhyiddin & Ibrahim, Helda & Musdalifah, Musdalifah, 2022. "Knowledge sharing behavior among farmers in Indonesia: Does social capital matter?," African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), vol. 22(10).
    3. Yong Liu & Jorge Ruiz-Menjivar & Junbiao Zhang, 2023. "Do soil nutrient management practices improve climate resilience? Empirical evidence from rice farmers in central China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 10029-10054, September.
    4. Wulansaria, Ica & Abdoellah, Oekan S. & Gunawan, Budhi & Parikesit, 2022. "Identification of Adaptive Capacity Assessments to Improve Collective Adaptation of Farmers to Climate Change," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 12(01), January.

    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. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    2. Hong, Liu & Tisdell, Clem & Fei, Wang, 2017. "Social Capital, Poverty and its Alleviation in a Chinese Border Region: A Case Study in the Kirghiz Prefecture, Xinjiang," Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers 263148, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    3. Lorenzo Rocco & Elena Fumagalli & Marc Suhrcke, 2014. "From Social Capital To Health – And Back," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 586-605, May.
    4. Engström, Karin & Mattsson, Fredrik & Järleborg, Anders & Hallqvist, Johan, 2008. "Contextual social capital as a risk factor for poor self-rated health: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2268-2280, June.
    5. Damiano, Fiorillo & Fabio, Sabatini, 2011. "Quality and quantity: the role of social interactions in individual health," MPRA Paper 29777, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Baron-Epel, Orna & Weinstein, Ruth & Haviv-Mesika, Amalia & Garty-Sandalon, Noga & Green, Manfred S., 2008. "Individual-level analysis of social capital and health: A comparison of Arab and Jewish Israelis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 900-910, February.
    7. Stefan Dercon & John Hoddinott & Pramila Krishnan & Tassew Woldehanna, 2007. "Collective action and vulnerability: Burial societies in rural Ethiopia," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-076, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1644-1652.
    9. Shoji, Masahiro & Aoyagi, Keitaro & Kasahara, Ryuji & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Ueyama, Mika, 2012. "Social Capital Formation and Credit Access: Evidence from Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 2522-2536.
    10. Khataza, Robertson R.B. & Doole, Graeme J. & Kragt, Marit E. & Hailu, Atakelty, 2018. "Information acquisition, learning and the adoption of conservation agriculture in Malawi: A discrete-time duration analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 299-307.
    11. Wang, Hongmei & Schlesinger, Mark & Wang, Hong & Hsiao, William C., 2009. "The flip-side of social capital: The distinctive influences of trust and mistrust on health in rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 133-142, January.
    12. Hunecke, Claudia & Engler, Alejandra & Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Poortvliet, P. Marijn, 2017. "Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: An application to irrigation technology," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 221-231.
    13. Mallik, Chinmoyee, 2016. "Sociology of land dispossession: Social capital and livelihoods in transition in Peri-urban Kolkata, India," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 38-47.
    14. Tisorn Songsermsawas & Kathy Baylis & Ashwini Chhatre & Hope Michelson, 2014. "Can Peers Improve Agricultural Productivity?," CESifo Working Paper Series 4958, CESifo.
    15. Giordano, Giuseppe Nicola & Björk, Jonas & Lindström, Martin, 2012. "Social capital and self-rated health – A study of temporal (causal) relationships," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 340-348.
    16. Özcan, Burcu & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2011. "Social trust and human development," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 753-762.
    17. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew & Gerber, Nicolas & Matz, Julia Anna, 2018. "Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 321-335.
    18. Levien, Michael, 2015. "Social Capital as Obstacle to Development: Brokering Land, Norms, and Trust in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-92.
    19. Konstantinos Matakos & Dimitrios Minos & Ari Perdana & Elizabeth Radin, 2022. "“Dragon boating” alone? Community ties and systemic income shocks," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 55-81, January.
    20. Sommarat Chantarat & Christopher Barrett, 2012. "Social network capital, economic mobility and poverty traps," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 299-342, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:climat:v:155:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10584-019-02449-y. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.