Showing papers by "International Food Policy Research Institute published in 1990"

A framework for assessing irrigation performance

Abstract: A comprehensive framework for conceptualizing irrigation performance is presented which, by clarifying relationships among the many incommensurate approaches to performance assessments, can provide the basis for more systematic comparative assessments of irrigation. Irrigation systems are carefully defined, and their relationships to broader agricultural and socioeconomic systems specified in terms both of goals and of inputs and outputs. Goals are seen as crucial to performance assessments, and the existence of many sometimes conflicting goals requires both specification of whose goals are being considered and clarification as to whether the goals are related to inputs, to outputs or to efficiency. Assessments can be categorized according to their purpose, with significant differences among those that monitor operational performance, those that facilitate interventions to improve performance, and those that promote accountability within an operating agency. Assessments also differ in the types of performance measures used. Three distinct categories of performance measures are identified: process measures, which relate to a system's internal operations; output measures, which focus on a system's final output; and impact measures, which pertain to the effects that the system's outputs induce in its larger environment. Performance measures are distinguished from performance standards which may be established from a variety of sources.

Farmer's perspective on irrigation performance

Abstract: Of the many client groups with interests in irrigation system performance, farmers are probably the least often considered. This paper attempts to explore the meaning of irrigation performance from their perspective, highlighting at the outset basic difference between this perspective and that of system managers. It then reviews several important concepts underlying a consideration of performance in irrigation systems. The paper then proposes and discusses a set of twelve measures of irrigation service judged to be of interest to farmers. These are adequacy, timeliness, equity, tractability, convenience, predictability, temperature, sediment content, salt content, nutrient content, toxics, and pathogens.

Poverty, Food Intake, and Malnutrition: Implications for Food Security in Developing Countries

Abstract: The relation between household income food intake and nutritional status in less developed countries is examined and a framework that explicitly relates household behavior patterns with public policy options designed to improve the nutritional status of the rural and urban poor is presented. For rural areas nutritional and health status depends largely upon the levels of private inputs provided by households. In turn level depends upon income. Consequently increasing income may also lead to improvements in nutrition and health status. Regrettably post-World War II development strategy in most developing countries has undervalued the potential contribution of agricultural development to economic development. Domestic economic policies practiced thus far have most probably had serious negative effects upon the nutrition and heal status of the poorest segments of developing nations. Economic development policy reform is therefore called for as a measure to alleviate rural poverty in developing countries.

Effects of Macroeconomic Policies on Sectoral Prices

Abstract: The effect of macroeconomic policies on the relative prices of internationally traded and domestic goods has been the subject of extensive study. Analysis of the way in which these policies then affect prices at the sectoral level is complicated by the beterogeneity of sectoral production: even the prices of single products usually are determined by both domestic and traded components. We present a framework which first traces the influence of macropolicy on the relative prices of exports, imports, and home goods. It then accounts for each sector's degree of "tradability," which is based on the importance of trade in sectoral income, and the influence of macroeconomic policy on sectoral prices. To illustrate the use of this approach, it is applied to a simulation of trade liberalization in Argentina. Our results suggest that economywide policies had substantial negative effects on both the real exchange rate and the incentives to agricultural exports. In an open economy, the prices of tradable products are determined by world prices, nominal exchange rates, and taxes. The prices of products which are not tradable are determined by domestic supply and demand, which are themselves influenced by the actions and policies of the government. Some very important economic decisions depend on the price of tradables relative to that of nontradables-the real exchange rate. We examine here the way in which broader government policies affect the real exchange rate, and through it, prices at the sectoral level.

Innovations in irrigation management and development in Hunan Province: financial autonomy, water wholesaling, turnover to farmers, mass movement labor.

Abstract: Mass movement labor was an important contributor to irrigation system construction in China during the seventies, making up a third or more of system costs. Total per-ha system costs are roughly consistent with those in other Asian countries when contributed labor is valued at estimated farm wage rates, but less than average if zero labor opportunity cost is assumed.

Policy Reform and Economic Development: Discussion

Abstract: My comments deal with the subject matter discussed in the papers and not with the actual performance of the agencies in question. I will comment only on two major issues, the role of knowledge and on the mapping of the effects of macro policy onto the growth process. This is intended to supplement the discussion in the papers, which I found to be insightful and recommend for reading. Why, with all the knowledge with respect to macro policy projected by the papers, do countries get into deep problems? Also, and not independently, will countries which have restored stabilization remain stable or, alternatively, will macro crises recur? The following discussion accepts the position presented in the papers, that our knowledge of stabilization has increased. Thus, if it is only knowledge that matters, then we should expect a much better performance in the future than in the past. What is the scope for such improvement? Trying to answer these questions requires broadening the framework to include the political economy aspects of the problem. Following Rausser, a distinction is made between benevolent and predatory governments. A benevolent government is one that plays the role of the social planner, whereas a predator exploits the system. Why should they have different policies? After all, a predator that plans to stay in power should also be interested in a strong economy because such an economy offers more opportunities for exploitation. Thus, a government need not be benevolent in its motives in