IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae18/277549.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analysing adoption of soil conservation measures by farmers in Darjeeling district, India

Author

Listed:
  • Singha, C.

Abstract

The study assess the key determinants of the decision to adopt soil conservation in Teesta River Watershed, in Darjeeling District in the Eastern Himalayas. In this watershed, there have been soil conservation both by the individual farmers on their own farm and by the government at the sub-watershed level. We collected data through a primary survey conducted during 2013. This study explicitly accounts for possible neighbourhood effects in influencing adoption. This is captured both by identifying adoption practices among farmers who are immediately upstream, and using spatial econometrics that incorporate the spatial distance between neighboring farms. We use Bayesian formulation of a standard probit model in conjunction with Markov Chain Monte Carlo to estimate the model. The findings suggest positive evidence of neighbourhood impact on farmers in adoption decisions. We also examine if adoption decisions differ between farmers residing in treated and untreated sub-watershed and conclude that they do not. Acknowledgement : I thank the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) for supporting the study financially. This study is part of my PhD dissertation at Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics. I extend my warm gratitude to J V Meenakshi and M N Murty for their supervision, suggestions and encouragements throughout the study. Thanks are also due to K L Krishna, Sanjeev Sharma, Raushan Kumar, Aditi Singhal, Divya Gupta, Bipasha Choudhury, Koushik Singha, Tamash Ranjan Majumdar and Sameer Lama

Suggested Citation

  • Singha, C., 2018. "Analysing adoption of soil conservation measures by farmers in Darjeeling district, India," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277549, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae18:277549
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277549
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277549/files/2047.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.277549?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Awudu Abdulai & Wallace E. Huffman, 2005. "The Diffusion of New Agricultural Technologies: The Case of Crossbred-Cow Technology in Tanzania," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(3), pages 645-659.
    2. Garth Holloway & Ma. Lucila A. Lapar, 2007. "How Big is Your Neighbourhood? Spatial Implications of Market Participation Among Filipino Smallholders," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 37-60, February.
    3. Shively, Gerald E., 2001. "Poverty, consumption risk, and soil conservation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 267-290, August.
    4. Oriana Bandiera & Imran Rasul, 2006. "Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 869-902, October.
    5. Hailemariam Teklewold & Menale Kassie & Bekele Shiferaw, 2013. "Adoption of Multiple Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rural Ethiopia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 597-623, September.
    6. Pinkse, Joris & Slade, Margaret E., 1998. "Contracting in space: An application of spatial statistics to discrete-choice models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 125-154, July.
    7. Coralio Ballester & Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Yves Zenou, 2006. "Who's Who in Networks. Wanted: The Key Player," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1403-1417, September.
    8. Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & David T. Butry, 2005. "Spatial Complementarity of Forests and Farms: Accounting for Ecosystem Services," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 995-1008.
    9. Scherr, Sara J., 1999. "Soil degradation: a threat to developing-country food security by 2020?," 2020 vision briefs 58, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Timothy G. Conley & Christopher R. Udry, 2010. "Learning about a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 35-69, March.
    11. Tesfamicheal Wossen & Thomas Berger & Salvatore Di Falco, 2015. "Social capital, risk preference and adoption of improved farm land management practices in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(1), pages 81-97, January.
    12. Rulon D. Pope & Richard Prescott, 1980. "Diversification in Relation to Farm Size and Other Socioeconomic Characteristics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(3), pages 554-559.
    13. Gershon Feder & Roger Slade, 1985. "The Role of Public Policy in the Diffusion of Improved Agricultural Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 67(2), pages 423-428.
    14. Chandan Singha, 2017. "Causal Impact of the Adoption of Soil Conservation Measures on Farm Profit, Revenue and Variable Cost in Darjeeling District, India," Working Papers id:11921, eSocialSciences.
    15. Lopez, Ramon, 2002. "The economics of agriculture in developing countries: The role of the environment," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 22, pages 1213-1247, Elsevier.
    16. Christine M. Moser & Christopher B. Barrett, 2006. "The complex dynamics of smallholder technology adoption: the case of SRI in Madagascar," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 35(3), pages 373-388, November.
    17. Scherr, Sara J., 1999. "Soil degradation: a threat to developing-country food security by 2020?," 2020 vision discussion papers 27, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Bekele, Wagayehu & Drake, Lars, 2003. "Soil and water conservation decision behavior of subsistence farmers in the Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia: a case study of the Hunde-Lafto area," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-451, October.
    19. Laepple, Doris & Kelley, Hugh, 2014. "Spatial dependence in the adoption of organic drystock farming in Ireland," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182759, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Marco Battaglini & Salvatore Nunnari & Thomas Palfrey, 2011. "The Free Rider Problem: a Dynamic Analysis," Working Papers 1354, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Econometric Research Program..
    21. Anselin, Luc, 2002. "Under the hood : Issues in the specification and interpretation of spatial regression models," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 247-267, November.
    22. Conley, T. G., 1999. "GMM estimation with cross sectional dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-45, September.
    23. Jetske Bouma & Daan Van Soest & Erwin Bulte, 2007. "How sustainable is participatory watershed development in India?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 36(1), pages 13-22, January.
    24. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "Strategic Interaction Among Governments: An Overview of Empirical Studies," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(2), pages 175-188, April.
    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. Chandan Singha, 2017. "Analyzing Adoption of soil Conservation Measures by Farmers in Darjeeling District, India," Working Papers id:12204, eSocialSciences.
    2. Chandan Singha, 2017. "Analysing Adoption of Soil Conservation Measures by Farmers in Darjeeling District, India," Working papers 275, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    3. Peddi, Dayakar & Kumar KS, Kavi, 2021. "Adoption of Soil Conservation Measures: Evidence from Rain-fed Watershed Areas of Telangana," Ecology, Economy and Society - the INSEE Journal, Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE), vol. 4(02), July.
    4. Wollni, Meike & Andersson, Camilla, 2014. "Spatial patterns of organic agriculture adoption: Evidence from Honduras," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 120-128.
    5. Bonan, Jacopo & Battiston, Pietro & Bleck, Jaimie & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe & Pareglio, Stefano & Sarr, Bassirou & Tavoni, Massimo, 2021. "Social interaction and technology adoption: Experimental evidence from improved cookstoves in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    6. Sébastien Desbureaux & Eric Nazindigouba Kere & Pascale Combes Motel, 2016. "Impact Evaluation in a Landscape: Protected Natural Forests, Anthropized Forested Lands and Deforestation Leakages in Madagascar's Rainforests," Working Papers halshs-01342182, HAL.
    7. Kathleen P. Bell & Timothy J. Dalton, 2007. "Spatial Economic Analysis in Data‐Rich Environments," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 487-501, September.
    8. Lim, Krisha & Wichmann, Bruno & Luckert, Martin, 2021. "Adaptation, spatial effects, and targeting: Evidence from Africa and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    9. Mukasa Adamon N., 2016. "Working Paper 233 - Technology Adoption and Risk Exposure among Smallholder Farmers: Panel Data Evidence from Tanzania and Uganda," Working Paper Series 2328, African Development Bank.
    10. Singha, Chandan, 2021. "Marginal value of sub-watershed treatment on profit in Darjeeling district, India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    11. Muhammad Khan, "undated". "The Health Burden of Dust Pollution in the Textile Industry of Faisalabad, Pakistan," Working papers 119, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    12. Desbureaux Sébastien & Eric Kéré Nazindigouba & Combes Motel Pascale, 2016. "Working Paper 238 - Impact Evaluation in a Landscape: protected natural forests, anthropized forested lands and deforestation leakages in Madagascar’s rainforests," Working Paper Series 2341, African Development Bank.
    13. Wollni, Meike & Andersson, Camilla I.M., 2013. "Spatial effects in organic agriculture adoption in Honduras: the role of social conformity, positive externalities, and information," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149911, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Anping Chen & Marlon Boarnet & Mark Partridge & Raffaella Calabrese & Johan A. Elkink, 2014. "Estimators Of Binary Spatial Autoregressive Models: A Monte Carlo Study," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 664-687, September.
    15. Pham, Huong-Giang & Chuah, Swee-Hoon & Feeny, Simon, 2021. "Factors affecting the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: Findings from panel data for Vietnam," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    16. Tisorn Songsermsawas & Kathy Baylis & Ashwini Chhatre & Hope Michelson, 2014. "Can Peers Improve Agricultural Productivity?," CESifo Working Paper Series 4958, CESifo.
    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. Feng, Yao, 2011. "Local spillovers and learning from neighbors: Evidence from durable adoptions in rural China," MPRA Paper 33924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Giuseppe Maggio & Marina Mastrorillo & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2022. "Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 385-403, January.
    20. Bet Caeyers, 2014. "Peer effects in development programme awareness of vulnerable groups in rural Tanzania," CSAE Working Paper Series 2014-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Farm Management;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:iaae18:277549. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    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.