This paper reviews the literature on the subject of the role of improved agricultural technology ... more This paper reviews the literature on the subject of the role of improved agricultural technology in alleviating poverty in developing countries. Focusing primarily on improved cultivars produced by the international agricultural research system, it shows how new technology combines with other socioeconomic and institutional factors to determine poverty alleviation utcomes. Technology's role in alleviating poverty is both indirect and partial; technology alone cannot overcome poverty, nor can continued poverty be blamed on improved technology. The review is organized into three parts: Part I introduces poverty and the achievements of agricultural research. Part II provides a conceptual framework and evidence from the literature for the link between new agricultural technology and poverty alleviation. It takes a historical perspective, examining evidence from the literature. The discussion simplifies the complexity of the relationship between technological change and poverty allev...
been significantly improved as a result of several watershed projects such as the Loess Plateau i... more been significantly improved as a result of several watershed projects such as the Loess Plateau in China and the Land Management 11 project in Brazil. This Note discusses the major issues and challenges involved in watershed management. From the point of view of the WSM Program, the terms watershed and catchment are interchangeable. They both a. refer to an area that supplies water by . surface or sub-surface flow to a given drain_ age system, be it a stream, river, or lake. On the higher slopes common in 2v ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ upper watersheds, land-use changes tend = to generate downstream effects to which other stakeholders in the watershed are subjected. The magnitude of these effects u depends on many factors, including the Rice planted on a terraced hillside in Indonesia provides good protection against erosion. size of the watershed. Although the effects of changes in land use are most readily many stakeholders. They are directly catchments, both the underserved comfelt in...
This study addresses three main research questions: 1) What projects are most successful in promo... more This study addresses three main research questions: 1) What projects are most successful in promoting the objectives of raising agricultural productivity, improving natural resource management and reducing poverty? 2) What approaches enable them to succeed? 3) What nonproject factors also contribute to achieving these objectives? The major hypotheses are that participatory approaches that devote more attention to social organization yield superior project impact, and that favorable economic conditions and good infrastructure also support better natural resource management and higher productivity.
Watershed development is an important component of rural development and natural resource managem... more Watershed development is an important component of rural development and natural resource management strategies in many countries. A watershed is a special kind of common pool resource: an area defined by hydrological linkages where optimal management requires coordinated use of natural resources by all users. Management is difficult because watershed systems have multiple, conflicting uses, so any given approach will spread benefits and costs unevenly among users. Theories from commons research predict great difficulty in managing complex watersheds and explain why success has been limited to isolated, actively facilitated microwatershed projects with a focus on social organization. Encouraging collective action is easiest at the microwatershed level but optimal hydrological management requires working at the macrowatershed level. Research suggests potentially severe tradeoffs between these two approaches. Resolving the tradeoffs is necessary for widespread success in watershed development but solutions are not clear. Examples from India illustrate the argument.
Motivated by recent increases in water pollution in major US agricultural watersheds and by the s... more Motivated by recent increases in water pollution in major US agricultural watersheds and by the shortcomings of government programs to control non–point source pollution, this paper examines the prospects for using product certification (ecolabeling) and business-to-business supply chain standards for environmental protection in commodity crop production. We introduce the sources of demand for certification and supply chain standards and the political and economic context in which they have expanded since the 1990s. We explore how various agrifood certification and supply chain standards have been used to achieve changes in production methods and/or in product attributes to meet social goals, and we discuss the prospects for applying these models to commodity crops. We conclude that the nature of corn and soybean production, distribution, and consumption—with numerous sales outlets and invisible consumption as part of processed foods and other products—makes certification schemes to...
Internal territorialisation or the formalisation of forest rights has led to increased state owne... more Internal territorialisation or the formalisation of forest rights has led to increased state ownership in many countries, often ignoring traditional or customary tenure and land use. Because of its roots in a formal government process, the disjuncture between formal rights and local practices may be seen as unproblematic to policymakers, even though it harms the livelihoods of marginalised forest dwellers. In India in 2006, this situation was sought to be addressed by the passage of the Forest Rights Act, which acknowledged the injustices of the territorialisation process and aimed to restore some rights over forest use to forest-dwelling people. In this paper we examine the history of the territorialisation process in forested areas in the state of Orissa, India, and its implications for local inhabitants' land rights and livelihoods. We use archival research and case studies to examine how imposition of formal land tenure in forested areas failed to recognise rights and led to exclusion, contestation and conflict. The archival research and the case studies were among the evidence presented in the Indian Parliament in support of passage of the 2006 law. They demonstrate the important role that researchers can play in the political process through careful documentation targeted at policymakers.
Page 1. Tenure and Access Rights as Constraints to Community Watershed Development in Orissa, Ind... more Page 1. Tenure and Access Rights as Constraints to Community Watershed Development in Orissa, India Kundan Kumar1, John Kerr2, and Pranab Choudhury3 Watershed development is the focal point of efforts for agricultural development, ...
This paper investigates the impacts of a social forestry program in Indonesia, Hutan Kamasyarakat... more This paper investigates the impacts of a social forestry program in Indonesia, Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm), based on analysis of a survey of 640 HKm and comparable non-HKm plots in the Sumberjaya watershed of southern Sumatra, and of the households operating those plots. The HKm program provides groups of farmers with secure-tenure permits to continue farming on state Protection Forest land and in exchange for protecting remaining natural forestland, planting multistrata agroforests, and using recommended soil and water conservation (SWC) measures on their coffee plantations. Using farmers' perceptions, econometric techniques, and propensity score matching, we investigated the impacts of the HKm program on perceived land tenure security, land purchase prices, farmers' investments in tree planting and SWC measures, and plot-level profits. A significant fraction of HKm group members are not aware of the program or fully aware of its requirements. Although farmers who are aware ...
This paper assesses the economic impacts of the Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm) social forestry progra... more This paper assesses the economic impacts of the Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm) social forestry program in the Sumberjaya watershed in West Lampung District of Sumatra, Indonesia, which began in 2001 to provide farmer groups permits to use already deforested state Protection Forest (PF) land in exchange for protecting remaining forests, planting timber and agro-forestry trees in their coffee plantations, and using soil and water conservation measures. The study is based on analysis of a survey conducted in 2005 for 640 plots in the watershed, selected using a stratified random sample of land of different tenure categories, and their operator households, and surveys of communities with PF land and HKm groups in the watershed. We find that HKm permit holders are poorer on average than owners of private land, but have comparable wealth to users of other eligible PF land who have not applied or received HKm permits, and users of National Park (NP) land, which is not eligible for HKm. Compare...
Economic reform has been on the Egyptian policy agenda since the mid-1970s. But progress has been... more Economic reform has been on the Egyptian policy agenda since the mid-1970s. But progress has been slow in part due to strong regulatory and institutional obstacles. The experience of the agricultural machinery manufacturing industry displays this problem. An economic analysis of manufacturing threshers shows that while the impact of price policies was about neutral, institutional barriers effectively taxed the industry 1522%. The greatest obstacle was access to marketing credit from the state-owned Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit. Access to materials and difftculties with tax authorities also hampered the industry.
This paper investigates the determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation inves... more This paper investigates the determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation investments in the semi-arid tropics of India. A simple theoretical model is used to develop hypotheses about the determinants of investment under alternative factor market conditions, and these are tested using data on conservation investment from three villages. We find that conservation investment is significantly lower on leased land in two of the study villages and lower on plots that are subject to sales restrictions in one village, suggesting the potential for land market reforms to increase conservation investment. In one village, households with more adult males, more farm servants, and less land invest more in conservation, as predicted by the model of imperfect labor markets; and households with more debt and off-farm income invest more, consistent with the model of imperfect credit markets. Evidence that conservation investment is affected by factor market imperfections is weaker in the other villages, where investments are much larger, suggesting transaction costs as the source of the differences between villages. Other factors that have a significant effect on investment include the farmer's education and caste, characteristics of the plot (size, slope, irrigation status, and quality ranking) and the presence of existing land investments. The results suggest the importance of accounting for differences across communities and households in factor market and agroclimatic conditions in designing programs to promote investments in soil and water conservation.
Voluntary carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), were worth $90 million in 2... more Voluntary carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), were worth $90 million in 2006. This paper finds that community forestry interventions of three organizations in India are eligible to sell carbon sequestration credits on CCX. Their combined annual sequestration potential is 104,427 tons of carbon dioxide (tCO 2), worth $417,708 at 2007 prices. Although this value will be difficult to realize immediately, it indicates the potential for carbon sequestration to raise rural incomes in India. These benefits can be actualized by first linking small pilot projects with CCX and then scaling up operations. Projects will also need to reduce transaction costs to raise the shares of carbon revenue that farmers receive. The diversion of land to raise tree crops needs to be balanced with food security concerns. A potentially viable approach would be to take up carbon plantations on common lands with concerned agencies acting as a liaison between farmer groups and the market.
As payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives spread to collectively managed natural re... more As payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives spread to collectively managed natural resources, questions arise because the incentive structures that might be appropriate for individually managed resources will not necessarily promote the collective action required to manage the commons. Theory suggests challenges for cash payments to promote collective action, and for alternative payment types to facilitate conditionality. Possible ways to reconcile this disconnect involve conceiving of PES more broadly through the use of multiple forms of payment including non-cash incentives and placing greater focus on building institutions for collective action than on strict conditionality.
Inclusion of marginalized sections and minorities remains one of the most vexing problems for dem... more Inclusion of marginalized sections and minorities remains one of the most vexing problems for democratic politics. This article discusses the enactment of a recent Indian law, 'The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006', as exemplifying the possibilities of inclusion of marginalized groups in democratic processes. The law was enacted in response to a nationwide mobilization of marginalized forest dwellers and their advocates demanding rights over forests. Grassrootslevel formations representing forest dwellers came together across scales and spaces to form a network that successfully negotiated India's democratic politics to achieve the passage of the law. The case illustrates the role of grassroots mobilizations in creating alternate discourses of legitimacy, networking across scales and locations, and using spaces provided by representative democracy to include the voices and demands of the marginalized in democracies. An Act to recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest lands in forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. .. . And Whereas the forest rights on their ancestral lands and habitats were not adequately recognised in the consolidation of state forests in the colonial as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustices to the forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers who are integral to the very sustainability and survival of the forest ecosystem. .. [Preamble of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006]. INCLUSION OF THE MARGINALIZED Inclusion of marginalized sections of society remains a paradox for democratic politics, both in theory and in political practice (Young, 2000). At the same time, inclusion becomes a critical question for the marginalized This article is based on dissertation research conducted by Kundan Kumar during 2004-07, under the guidance of John Kerr. The research was supported by the Junior Research Fellowship of the American Institute for Indian Studies, Chicago. We would like to express our gratitude to the NGO Vasundhara, particularly the Land Team members for their support in the research. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of Development and Change for their comments and encouragement. Most of all, we would like to acknowledge the many extraordinary people who made the Recognition of Forest Rights Act possible and express special thanks to Madhu Sarin, Shankar Gopalakrishnan and Pradip Prabhu.
This paper reviews the literature on the subject of the role of improved agricultural technology ... more This paper reviews the literature on the subject of the role of improved agricultural technology in alleviating poverty in developing countries. Focusing primarily on improved cultivars produced by the international agricultural research system, it shows how new technology combines with other socioeconomic and institutional factors to determine poverty alleviation utcomes. Technology's role in alleviating poverty is both indirect and partial; technology alone cannot overcome poverty, nor can continued poverty be blamed on improved technology. The review is organized into three parts: Part I introduces poverty and the achievements of agricultural research. Part II provides a conceptual framework and evidence from the literature for the link between new agricultural technology and poverty alleviation. It takes a historical perspective, examining evidence from the literature. The discussion simplifies the complexity of the relationship between technological change and poverty allev...
been significantly improved as a result of several watershed projects such as the Loess Plateau i... more been significantly improved as a result of several watershed projects such as the Loess Plateau in China and the Land Management 11 project in Brazil. This Note discusses the major issues and challenges involved in watershed management. From the point of view of the WSM Program, the terms watershed and catchment are interchangeable. They both a. refer to an area that supplies water by . surface or sub-surface flow to a given drain_ age system, be it a stream, river, or lake. On the higher slopes common in 2v ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ upper watersheds, land-use changes tend = to generate downstream effects to which other stakeholders in the watershed are subjected. The magnitude of these effects u depends on many factors, including the Rice planted on a terraced hillside in Indonesia provides good protection against erosion. size of the watershed. Although the effects of changes in land use are most readily many stakeholders. They are directly catchments, both the underserved comfelt in...
This study addresses three main research questions: 1) What projects are most successful in promo... more This study addresses three main research questions: 1) What projects are most successful in promoting the objectives of raising agricultural productivity, improving natural resource management and reducing poverty? 2) What approaches enable them to succeed? 3) What nonproject factors also contribute to achieving these objectives? The major hypotheses are that participatory approaches that devote more attention to social organization yield superior project impact, and that favorable economic conditions and good infrastructure also support better natural resource management and higher productivity.
Watershed development is an important component of rural development and natural resource managem... more Watershed development is an important component of rural development and natural resource management strategies in many countries. A watershed is a special kind of common pool resource: an area defined by hydrological linkages where optimal management requires coordinated use of natural resources by all users. Management is difficult because watershed systems have multiple, conflicting uses, so any given approach will spread benefits and costs unevenly among users. Theories from commons research predict great difficulty in managing complex watersheds and explain why success has been limited to isolated, actively facilitated microwatershed projects with a focus on social organization. Encouraging collective action is easiest at the microwatershed level but optimal hydrological management requires working at the macrowatershed level. Research suggests potentially severe tradeoffs between these two approaches. Resolving the tradeoffs is necessary for widespread success in watershed development but solutions are not clear. Examples from India illustrate the argument.
Motivated by recent increases in water pollution in major US agricultural watersheds and by the s... more Motivated by recent increases in water pollution in major US agricultural watersheds and by the shortcomings of government programs to control non–point source pollution, this paper examines the prospects for using product certification (ecolabeling) and business-to-business supply chain standards for environmental protection in commodity crop production. We introduce the sources of demand for certification and supply chain standards and the political and economic context in which they have expanded since the 1990s. We explore how various agrifood certification and supply chain standards have been used to achieve changes in production methods and/or in product attributes to meet social goals, and we discuss the prospects for applying these models to commodity crops. We conclude that the nature of corn and soybean production, distribution, and consumption—with numerous sales outlets and invisible consumption as part of processed foods and other products—makes certification schemes to...
Internal territorialisation or the formalisation of forest rights has led to increased state owne... more Internal territorialisation or the formalisation of forest rights has led to increased state ownership in many countries, often ignoring traditional or customary tenure and land use. Because of its roots in a formal government process, the disjuncture between formal rights and local practices may be seen as unproblematic to policymakers, even though it harms the livelihoods of marginalised forest dwellers. In India in 2006, this situation was sought to be addressed by the passage of the Forest Rights Act, which acknowledged the injustices of the territorialisation process and aimed to restore some rights over forest use to forest-dwelling people. In this paper we examine the history of the territorialisation process in forested areas in the state of Orissa, India, and its implications for local inhabitants' land rights and livelihoods. We use archival research and case studies to examine how imposition of formal land tenure in forested areas failed to recognise rights and led to exclusion, contestation and conflict. The archival research and the case studies were among the evidence presented in the Indian Parliament in support of passage of the 2006 law. They demonstrate the important role that researchers can play in the political process through careful documentation targeted at policymakers.
Page 1. Tenure and Access Rights as Constraints to Community Watershed Development in Orissa, Ind... more Page 1. Tenure and Access Rights as Constraints to Community Watershed Development in Orissa, India Kundan Kumar1, John Kerr2, and Pranab Choudhury3 Watershed development is the focal point of efforts for agricultural development, ...
This paper investigates the impacts of a social forestry program in Indonesia, Hutan Kamasyarakat... more This paper investigates the impacts of a social forestry program in Indonesia, Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm), based on analysis of a survey of 640 HKm and comparable non-HKm plots in the Sumberjaya watershed of southern Sumatra, and of the households operating those plots. The HKm program provides groups of farmers with secure-tenure permits to continue farming on state Protection Forest land and in exchange for protecting remaining natural forestland, planting multistrata agroforests, and using recommended soil and water conservation (SWC) measures on their coffee plantations. Using farmers' perceptions, econometric techniques, and propensity score matching, we investigated the impacts of the HKm program on perceived land tenure security, land purchase prices, farmers' investments in tree planting and SWC measures, and plot-level profits. A significant fraction of HKm group members are not aware of the program or fully aware of its requirements. Although farmers who are aware ...
This paper assesses the economic impacts of the Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm) social forestry progra... more This paper assesses the economic impacts of the Hutan Kamasyarakatan (HKm) social forestry program in the Sumberjaya watershed in West Lampung District of Sumatra, Indonesia, which began in 2001 to provide farmer groups permits to use already deforested state Protection Forest (PF) land in exchange for protecting remaining forests, planting timber and agro-forestry trees in their coffee plantations, and using soil and water conservation measures. The study is based on analysis of a survey conducted in 2005 for 640 plots in the watershed, selected using a stratified random sample of land of different tenure categories, and their operator households, and surveys of communities with PF land and HKm groups in the watershed. We find that HKm permit holders are poorer on average than owners of private land, but have comparable wealth to users of other eligible PF land who have not applied or received HKm permits, and users of National Park (NP) land, which is not eligible for HKm. Compare...
Economic reform has been on the Egyptian policy agenda since the mid-1970s. But progress has been... more Economic reform has been on the Egyptian policy agenda since the mid-1970s. But progress has been slow in part due to strong regulatory and institutional obstacles. The experience of the agricultural machinery manufacturing industry displays this problem. An economic analysis of manufacturing threshers shows that while the impact of price policies was about neutral, institutional barriers effectively taxed the industry 1522%. The greatest obstacle was access to marketing credit from the state-owned Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit. Access to materials and difftculties with tax authorities also hampered the industry.
This paper investigates the determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation inves... more This paper investigates the determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation investments in the semi-arid tropics of India. A simple theoretical model is used to develop hypotheses about the determinants of investment under alternative factor market conditions, and these are tested using data on conservation investment from three villages. We find that conservation investment is significantly lower on leased land in two of the study villages and lower on plots that are subject to sales restrictions in one village, suggesting the potential for land market reforms to increase conservation investment. In one village, households with more adult males, more farm servants, and less land invest more in conservation, as predicted by the model of imperfect labor markets; and households with more debt and off-farm income invest more, consistent with the model of imperfect credit markets. Evidence that conservation investment is affected by factor market imperfections is weaker in the other villages, where investments are much larger, suggesting transaction costs as the source of the differences between villages. Other factors that have a significant effect on investment include the farmer's education and caste, characteristics of the plot (size, slope, irrigation status, and quality ranking) and the presence of existing land investments. The results suggest the importance of accounting for differences across communities and households in factor market and agroclimatic conditions in designing programs to promote investments in soil and water conservation.
Voluntary carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), were worth $90 million in 2... more Voluntary carbon markets, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), were worth $90 million in 2006. This paper finds that community forestry interventions of three organizations in India are eligible to sell carbon sequestration credits on CCX. Their combined annual sequestration potential is 104,427 tons of carbon dioxide (tCO 2), worth $417,708 at 2007 prices. Although this value will be difficult to realize immediately, it indicates the potential for carbon sequestration to raise rural incomes in India. These benefits can be actualized by first linking small pilot projects with CCX and then scaling up operations. Projects will also need to reduce transaction costs to raise the shares of carbon revenue that farmers receive. The diversion of land to raise tree crops needs to be balanced with food security concerns. A potentially viable approach would be to take up carbon plantations on common lands with concerned agencies acting as a liaison between farmer groups and the market.
As payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives spread to collectively managed natural re... more As payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives spread to collectively managed natural resources, questions arise because the incentive structures that might be appropriate for individually managed resources will not necessarily promote the collective action required to manage the commons. Theory suggests challenges for cash payments to promote collective action, and for alternative payment types to facilitate conditionality. Possible ways to reconcile this disconnect involve conceiving of PES more broadly through the use of multiple forms of payment including non-cash incentives and placing greater focus on building institutions for collective action than on strict conditionality.
Inclusion of marginalized sections and minorities remains one of the most vexing problems for dem... more Inclusion of marginalized sections and minorities remains one of the most vexing problems for democratic politics. This article discusses the enactment of a recent Indian law, 'The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006', as exemplifying the possibilities of inclusion of marginalized groups in democratic processes. The law was enacted in response to a nationwide mobilization of marginalized forest dwellers and their advocates demanding rights over forests. Grassrootslevel formations representing forest dwellers came together across scales and spaces to form a network that successfully negotiated India's democratic politics to achieve the passage of the law. The case illustrates the role of grassroots mobilizations in creating alternate discourses of legitimacy, networking across scales and locations, and using spaces provided by representative democracy to include the voices and demands of the marginalized in democracies. An Act to recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest lands in forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. .. . And Whereas the forest rights on their ancestral lands and habitats were not adequately recognised in the consolidation of state forests in the colonial as well as in independent India resulting in historical injustices to the forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers who are integral to the very sustainability and survival of the forest ecosystem. .. [Preamble of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006]. INCLUSION OF THE MARGINALIZED Inclusion of marginalized sections of society remains a paradox for democratic politics, both in theory and in political practice (Young, 2000). At the same time, inclusion becomes a critical question for the marginalized This article is based on dissertation research conducted by Kundan Kumar during 2004-07, under the guidance of John Kerr. The research was supported by the Junior Research Fellowship of the American Institute for Indian Studies, Chicago. We would like to express our gratitude to the NGO Vasundhara, particularly the Land Team members for their support in the research. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of Development and Change for their comments and encouragement. Most of all, we would like to acknowledge the many extraordinary people who made the Recognition of Forest Rights Act possible and express special thanks to Madhu Sarin, Shankar Gopalakrishnan and Pradip Prabhu.
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