Do Institutional Programs Aimed at Groundwater Augmentation Affect Crop Choice Decisions under Groundwater Irrigation? Empirical Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India
01 Jul 2015-Water Economics and Policy (World Scientific Publishing Company)-Vol. 01, Iss: 02, pp 1550002
TL;DR: In this article, a multivariate probit (MVP) analysis reveals that crop water budget exercise and farmer field school participation are positively associated with high water intensive (HWI) crop choices, whereas participation in soil moisture conservation efforts is positively associated to growing low water intensive and drought resistant (DR) crops.
Abstract: Crop choices made by farmers can make important contributions toward the sustainable management of groundwater resources in drought prone regions. However, farmers who would tend to maximize profits under normal circumstances face a trade-off between the choices of risky but more profitable high water intensive (HWI) crops on one hand and the low risk but less profitable low water intensive (LWI) and drought resistant (DR) crops on the other. In drought-hit regions of South India, institutional programs, such as crop water budgeting and farmer schools, have been promoted to provide support and information to the farmers in helping them make judicious crop choices. A multivariate probit (MVP) analysis reveals that crop water budget exercise and farmer field school participation, in fact, are positively associated with HWI crop choices, whereas participation in soil moisture conservation efforts is positively associated with growing LWI and DR crops. Our findings indicate that the objective of groundwater augmentation through institutional interventions that are solely based on educating and training farmers have been ineffective and have even been providing perverse incentives, and that there is a need for adding water extraction compliance components to such support programs in order for them to be efficacious.
Citations
More filters
01 Dec 2010
TL;DR: The authors investigated the impact of instructional attributes on student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires and found that they pose a serious multicollinearity problem for quantitative analysis including regression analysis.
Abstract: It is commonly perceived that variables ‘measuring’ different dimensions of teaching (construed as instructional attributes) used in student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires are so highly correlated that they pose a serious multicollinearity problem for quantitative analysis including regression analysis. Using nearly 12000 individual student responses to SET questionnaires and ten key dimensions of teaching and 25 courses at various undergraduate and postgraduate levels for multiple years at a large Australian university, this paper investigates whether this is indeed the case and if so under what circumstances. This paper tests this proposition first by examining variance inflation factors (VIFs), across courses, levels and over time using individual responses; and secondly by using class averages. In the first instance, the paper finds no sustainable evidence of multicollinearity. While, there were one or two isolated cases of VIFs marginally exceeding the conservative threshold of 5, in no cases did the VIFs for any of the instructional attributes come anywhere close to the high threshold value of 10. In the second instance, however, the paper finds that the attributes are highly correlated as all the VIFs exceed 10. These findings have two implications: (a) given the ordinal nature of the data ordered probit analysis using individual student responses can be employed to quantify the impact of instructional attributes on TEVAL score; (b) Data based on class averages cannot be used for probit analysis. An illustrative exercise using level 2 undergraduate courses data suggests higher TEVAL scores depend first and foremost on improving explanation, presentation, and organization of lecture materials.
8 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the relation between the production of water intensive crops and groundwater depletion in India was analyzed using time fixed effects and Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) models.
Abstract: Historically, India has relied heavily on groundwater for agriculture with approximately, 80% of irrigated water being sourced from groundwater. This paper aims to analyze the relation between the production of water intensive crops and groundwater depletion in India. I study the crop production of 3 crops: sugarcane, cotton and rice and hypothesize that there exists a positive relationship between the production of water intensive crops and groundwater depletion. Using a novel dataset, I estimate time fixed effects and Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) models to study this relationship. The fixed effects model shows that an increase of 1% in total area under production of rice, sugarcane and cotton is associated with an increase of 0.009 % in the distance between the ground level and the groundwater table, which is approximately equivalent to a loss of 7,191 liters of groundwater per Hectare. Using GMM, I find that a fall of 22,372 liters of groundwater associated with a 1 Ha increase in total area under production of highly water intensive crops. The results have critical policy implications for groundwater management and agricultural practices in India. These include solutions like watershed management and better rainwater harvesting to reduce the overdraft from the country’s “water banks”. In particular, based on my findings, I propose a review of energy subsidies in the agricultural sector especially as they may create perverse incentives to grow water intensive crops in areas where groundwater is low. The results also highlight the need for inclusion of groundwater as a critical input in the Soil Health Cards scheme, which is currently being rolled out by the Government of India. Sustainable crop choices can be made by considering groundwater levels, especially in the case of water intensive crops, as their production is related to the overdraft in India’s water banks.
4 citations
Cites background from "Do Institutional Programs Aimed at ..."
...Farmers often face the decision between growing cash crops that are more profitable, but highly water intensive, or growing less profitable, but low risk crops.(27) Crop selection is distorted by the market appeal of cash crops, especially as farmers do...
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, a parameter covariance matrix estimator which is consistent even when the disturbances of a linear regression model are heteroskedastic is presented, which does not depend on a formal model of the structure of the heteroSkewedness.
Abstract: This paper presents a parameter covariance matrix estimator which is consistent even when the disturbances of a linear regression model are heteroskedastic. This estimator does not depend on a formal model of the structure of the heteroskedasticity. By comparing the elements of the new estimator to those of the usual covariance estimator, one obtains a direct test for heteroskedasticity, since in the absence of heteroskedasticity, the two estimators will be approximately equal, but will generally diverge otherwise. The test has an appealing least squares interpretation.
25,689 citations
TL;DR: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
Abstract: The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
22,421 citations
31 Jan 1982
TL;DR: This article reviewed various studies which have provided a description of and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector and highlighted the diversity in observed patterns among various farmers' classes as well as differences in results from different studies in different socioeconomic environments.
Abstract: This paper is a revised version of Staff Working Paper 444 It reviews various studies which have provided a description of and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector It therefore covers both empirical and theoretical studies The discussion highlights the diversity in observed patterns among various farmers' classes as well as differences in results from different studies in different socio-economic environments, and reviews the attempts to rationalize such findings Special attention is given to the methodologies which are commonly used in studies of innovation adoption, and suggestions for improvements of such work through the use of appropriate economometric methods are provided The diversity of experiences with different innovations in different geographical and socio-cultural environments suggest that studies of adoption patterns should provide detailed information on attributes of the institutional, social and cultural setting and their interactions with economic factors These may be an important element in explaining conflicting experiences
3,145 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector, and point out that the tendency of many studies to consider adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range.
Abstract: This paper reviews various studies which have provided a description and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector. The survey points out that the tendency of many studies to consider innovation adoption in dichotomous terms (adoption/nonadoption) may not be appropriate in many cases where the actual decisions are defined over a more continuous range. More attention needs to be given to the socio-cultural and institutional environment in area studies so that their interrelation with economic factors affecting adoption can be inferred. The presence of several interrelated innovations is another aspect that needs to be considered more carefully in future research, since a number of simultaneous decisions may be involved. Furthermore, the possibility of regular sequential patterns in adopting components of a new technological package should be specifically addressed in future studies. Finally, the impact of differential adoption rates on land holding distribution merits attention in future research.
2,845 citations
TL;DR: It is argued investigators should routinely use one of these heteroskedasticity-consistent standard error estimators for OLS regression and easy-to-use SPSS and SAS macros to implement this recommendation are provided.
Abstract: Homoskedasticity is an important assumption in ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Although the estimator of the regression parameters in OLS regression is unbiased when the homoskedasticity assumption is violated, the estimator of the covariance matrix of the parameter estimates can be biased and inconsistent under heteroskedasticity, which can produce significance tests and confidence intervals that can be liberal or conservative. After a brief description of heteroskedasticity and its effects on inference in OLS regression, we discuss a family of heteroskedasticity-consistent standard error estimators for OLS regression and argue investigators should routinely use one of these estimators when conducting hypothesis tests using OLS regression. To facilitate the adoption of this recommendation, we provide easy-to-use SPSS and SAS macros to implement the procedures discussed here.
954 citations