IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/artjou/v19y2020i2p224-249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Collective Action and Tragedy of Tank Water

Author

Listed:
  • Sukumar Sarkar
  • Biswajit Ray

Abstract

Tank irrigation is important in agriculture-dependent developing economies such as India. Since tank water is a common pool resource, managing tanks cost-effectively through collective action (CA) is a challenge. This notion raises the following principal questions on the tank commons: What is the relationship between transaction costs (that is, cost of cooperation) and CA? And what drive the use of tank water for irrigation? For satisfactory answers, we carried out field studies on 127 farmers of seven tank villages in the districts of Bardhaman and West Midnapore in West Bengal, India between September 2015 and May 2017. Interesting findings have emerged from our study. We notice that CAs are inversely correlated with transaction costs in the study sites. Regarding the factors influencing tank water use (WU) we find based on Logit models that CA matters in WU significantly and positively. This impact of CA on WU is also robust irrespective of the model specifications. However, low income households participate more by offering labour than money but unfortunately they seem to have no primary motives for tank reconstruction. Moreover, in communities where tanks are large, local people’s participation more in terms of labour and such participation in reconstruction of the tanks is their primary motive, and also where the institutional arrangements are both formal and informal, people tend to use tank water more. The practical implication is that the absence of Water User Association and hence proper collaborative management coupled with weak nestedness between the village people and the State is one of the major causes of inadequate tank WU, leading to the decline of the tank commons. JEL: Q01, Q25

Suggested Citation

  • Sukumar Sarkar & Biswajit Ray, 2020. "Collective Action and Tragedy of Tank Water," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(2), pages 224-249, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:artjou:v:19:y:2020:i:2:p:224-249
    DOI: 10.1177/0976747919868696
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0976747919868696
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0976747919868696?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. Bhim Adhikari & Jon Lovett, 2006. "Institutions and collective action: Does heterogeneity matter in community-based resource management?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 426-445.
    2. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & DiGregorio, Monica & McCarthy, Nancy, 2004. "Methods for studying collective action in rural development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 197-214, December.
    3. Amarnath, J.S. & Raja, P. Karthik, 2006. "An Economic Analysis of Tank Rehabilitation in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 19(1), January.
    4. Biswajit Ray & Rabindra Bhattacharya, 2011. "Transaction Costs, Collective Action and Survival of Heterogeneous Co-management Institutions: Case Study of Forest Management Organisations in West Bengal, India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 253-273.
    5. Bouma, Jetske A. & Joy, K.J. & Paranjape, Suhas & Ansink, Erik, 2014. "The Influence of Legitimacy Perceptions on Cooperation – A Framed Field Experiment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 127-137.
    6. Bhim Adhikari & Salvatore Di Falco, 2009. "Social Inequality, Local Leadership and Collective Action: An Empirical Study of Forest Commons," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 21(2), pages 179-194, April.
    7. Hodge, Ian & McNally, Sandra, 2000. "Wetland restoration, collective action and the role of water management institutions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 107-118, October.
    8. Agarwal, Bina, 2000. "Conceptualising Environmental Collective Action: Why Gender Matters," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(3), pages 283-310, May.
    9. Ray, Biswajit & Mukherjee, Promita & Bhattacharya, Rabindra N., 2017. "Attitudes and cooperation: does gender matter in community-based forest management?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 594-623, October.
    10. Uetake, Tetsuya, 2012. "Providing Agri-environmental Public Goods through Collective Action: Lessons from New Zealand Case Studies," 2012 Conference, August 31, 2012, Nelson, New Zealand 136071, New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    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. I.D.K.S.D. Ariyawanshe & Miho Fujimura & A.H.M.S.W.B. Abeyrathne & Tsuji Kazunari, 2023. "Fostering Collective Action in a Village-Tank Cascade-Based Community in Sri Lanka: An Illusion or Reality?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Jana, Sebak Kumar & Tamang, Pravesh, 2023. "Prospects of rehabilitation of ancient irrigation systems in India – A case study from coastal saline zone of West Bengal," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).

    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. Promita Mukherjee & Biswajit Ray & Rabindra N. Bhattacharya, 2017. "Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(5), pages 1831-1854, October.
    2. Leone, Marinella, 2019. "Women as decision makers in community forest management: Evidence from Nepal," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 180-191.
    3. Yadav, Bhagwan Dutta & Bigsby, Hugh & MacDonald, Ian, 2015. "How can poor and disadvantaged households get an opportunity to become a leader in community forestry in Nepal?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 27-38.
    4. Elias Damtew & Barbara Mierlo & Rico Lie & Paul Struik & Cees Leeuwis & Berga Lemaga & Christine Smart, 2020. "Governing a Collective Bad: Social Learning in the Management of Crop Diseases," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 111-134, February.
    5. St. Clair, Priscilla Cooke, 2016. "Community forest management, gender and fuelwood collection in rural Nepal," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 52-71.
    6. Biswajit Ray & Promita Mukherjee, 2023. "Forest Income and Rural Livelihoods in West Bengal, India," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 11(1), pages 10-35, April.
    7. Panchali Guha, 2023. "School committee composition: Exploring the role of parental and female representation in India," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(3), May.
    8. Thapliyal, Sneha & Mukherji, Arnab & Malghan, Deepak, 2019. "Economic inequality and loss of commons: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 693-712.
    9. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    10. Crespo, Joan & Réquier-Desjardins, Denis & Vicente, Jérôme, 2014. "Why can collective action fail in Local Agri-food Systems? A social network analysis of cheese producers in Aculco, Mexico," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 165-177.
    11. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Medhin, Haileselassie, 2020. "Leader turnover and forest management outcomes: Micro-level evidence from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    12. Schultz, Bill, 2020. "Resource management and joint-planning in fragmented societies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    13. Bina Agarwal, "undated". "The Hidden Side Of Group Behaviour: A Gender Analysis Of Community Forestry Groups," QEH Working Papers qehwps76, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    14. Stefani, Gianluca & Lombardi, Ginevra Virginia & Romano, Donato & Cei, Leonardo, 2017. "Grass Root Collective Action for Territorially Integrated Food Supply Chains: A Case Study from Tuscany," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 8(4), October.
    15. Desai, Raj M. & Olofsgård, Anders, 2019. "Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-52.
    16. Hanatani, Atsushi & Fuse, Kana, 2010. "Linking Resource Users’ Perceptions and Collective Action in Commons Management," Working Papers 24, JICA Research Institute.
    17. Barbara Quimby & Arielle Levine, 2018. "Participation, Power, and Equity: Examining Three Key Social Dimensions of Fisheries Comanagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    18. Padmanabhan, Martina, 2011. "Women and men as conservers, users and managers of agrobiodiversity," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 968-976.
    19. Fijnanda van Klingeren, 2020. "Playing nice in the sandbox: On the role of heterogeneity, trust and cooperation in common-pool resources," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-36, August.
    20. Naidu, Sirisha C., 2011. "Gendered effects of work and participation in collective forest management," MPRA Paper 31091, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Collective action; management; reconstruction; tank irrigation; transaction cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

    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:sae:artjou:v:19:y:2020:i:2:p:224-249. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.