IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/snd/wpaper/113.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are All Shifting Cultivators poor? Evidence from Sri Lanka's Dry zones

Author

Listed:
  • Prabath Nishantha Edirisinghe

Abstract

Shifting cultivation is one of the main causes of deforestation and forest degradation in Sri Lanka. This study uses household data and satellite images to investigate the determinants of shifting cultivation and the potential to control the intensity of this practice. Some 50% of households studied in Monaragala district of Sri Lanka practiced shifting cultivation during the 2011/2012 cultivation season. This practice is largely characterized by a short fallow period, mono cropping and high input use and repeated annual use of the same plot of land.Households practicing shifting cultivation, on average, use less than 1 hectare every year for this activity. Some 59% of shifting cultivation farmers indicated that they had cultivated the same piece of land every year during the 2006-2011 period. The practice is not restricted to poor landless farmers. Regression results show that households that possess more private land and other assets tend to cultivate larger areas of land. Therefore, the contribution of relatively wealthy households to shifting cultivation is more than that of poor households. Furthermore,households with more adult family members in a family tend to cultivate larger areas of shifting cultivation lands. Full-time non-farm occupations are a deterrent to this practice. To reduce the area of shifting cultivation, the study recommends an integrated plan with alternate income generation options for people who may have to give up existing swidden lands.

Suggested Citation

  • Prabath Nishantha Edirisinghe, "undated". "Are All Shifting Cultivators poor? Evidence from Sri Lanka's Dry zones," Working papers 113, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:snd:wpaper:113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sandeeonline.org/uploads/documents/publication/1103_PUB_WP_117_Prabath.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mani Nepal & Alok K. Bohara & Robert P. Berrens, 2007. "The Impacts of Social Networks and Household Forest Conservation Efforts in Rural Nepal," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(2), pages 174-191.
    2. Mani Nepal, "undated". "Where gathering firewood matters: Proximity and forest management effects in hedonic pricing models for rural Nepal," Working papers 111, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    3. Zabel, Jeffrey E. & Guignet, Dennis, 2012. "A hedonic analysis of the impact of LUST sites on house prices," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 549-564.
    4. Mani Nepal & Apsara Nepal & Kristin Grimsurd, "undated". "Unbelievable but True -- Improved cook-stoves are not helpful in reducing firewood demand in Nepal," Working papers 51, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    5. Gregory Amacher & William Hyde & Keshav Kanel, 1999. "Nepali fuelwood production and consumption: Regional and household distinctions, substitution and successful intervention," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 138-163.
    6. Céline Nauges & Caroline Berg, 2009. "Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services: Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(4), pages 535-549, April.
    7. Pearson, L. J. & Tisdell, C. & Lisle, A. T., 2002. "The Impact of Noosa National Park on Surrounding Property Values: An Application of the Hedonic Price Method," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 155-171, June Spec.
    8. Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2009. "The reliability of self-reported home values in a developing country context," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 311-324, December.
    9. Nicolai V. Kuminoff & V. Kerry Smith & Christopher Timmins, 2013. "The New Economics of Equilibrium Sorting and Policy Evaluation Using Housing Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1007-1062, December.
    10. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    11. Harold Demsetz, 1974. "Toward a Theory of Property Rights," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 8, pages 163-177, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Nepal, Mani & Nepal, Apsara & Grimsrud, Kristine, 2011. "Unbelievable but improved cookstoves are not helpful in reducing firewood demand in Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, February.
    13. John C. Allen & John B. Ittner, 1993. "The accuracy of home owners' estimates of house value," Working Paper Series / Economic Activity Section 131, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Brian Bucks & Karen M. Pence, 2006. "Do homeowners know their house values and mortgage terms?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-03, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    15. Philippe Le Goffe, 2000. "Hedonic pricing of agriculture and forestry externalities," Post-Print hal-02364341, HAL.
    16. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    17. Paul Thorsnes, 2002. "The Value of a Suburban Forest Preserve: Estimates from Sales of Vacant Residential Building Lots," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 78(3), pages 426-441.
    18. Price, James I. & McCollum, Daniel W. & Berrens, Robert P., 2010. "Insect infestation and residential property values: A hedonic analysis of the mountain pine beetle epidemic," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 415-422, July.
    19. Charlotte Ham & Patricia A. Champ & John B. Loomis & Robin M. Reich, 2012. "Accounting for Heterogeneity of Public Lands in Hedonic Property Models," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(3), pages 444-456.
    20. Allen Klaiber, H. & Phaneuf, Daniel J., 2010. "Valuing open space in a residential sorting model of the Twin Cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 57-77, September.
    21. 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.
    22. Katherine Kiel & Jeffrey Zabel, 1999. "The Accuracy of Owner-Provided House Values: The 1978-1991 American Housing Survey," Working Papers 9906, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    23. Mani Nepal & Alok K. Bohara & Kishore Gawande, 2011. "More Inequality, More Killings: The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 886-906, October.
    24. Agarwal, Bina, 2009. "Rule making in community forestry institutions: The difference women make," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2296-2308, June.
    25. Bin, Okmyung & Polasky, Stephen, 2005. "Evidence on the Amenity Value of Wetlands in a Rural Setting," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 589-602, December.
    26. Germán M. Izón & Michael S. Hand & Matias Fontenla & Robert P. Berrens, 2010. "The Economic Value Of Protecting Inventoried Roadless Areas: A Spatial Hedonic Price Study In New Mexico," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(4), pages 537-553, October.
    27. Michael S. Hand & Jennifer A. Thacher & Daniel W. McCollum & Robert P. Berrens, 2008. "Intra-Regional Amenities, Wages, and Home Prices: The Role of Forests in the Southwest," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(4), pages 635-651.
    28. Tyrvainen, Liisa & Miettinen, Antti, 2000. "Property Prices and Urban Forest Amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 205-223, March.
    29. Katherine A. Kiel & Jeffrey E. Zabel, 1999. "The Accuracy of Owner‐Provided House Values: The 1978–1991 American Housing Survey," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 263-298, June.
    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. Stephen Gibbons & Susana Mourato & Guilherme Resende, 2014. "The Amenity Value of English Nature: A Hedonic Price Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 57(2), pages 175-196, February.
    2. Tuffery, Laetitia, 2017. "The recreational services value of the nearby periurban forest versus the regional forest environment," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 33-41.
    3. Bluffstone, Randy & Robinson, Elizabeth & Guthiga, Paul, 2012. "Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12 percent and 20 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions. These activities, largely in the developing world, released abou," RFF Working Paper Series dp-12-11-efd, Resources for the Future.
    4. Waltert, Fabian & Schläpfer, Felix, 2010. "Landscape amenities and local development: A review of migration, regional economic and hedonic pricing studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 141-152, December.
    5. Tur-Sinai, Aviad & Fleishman, Larisa & Romanov, Dmitri, 2020. "The accuracy of self-reported dwelling valuation," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    6. Abbott, Joshua K. & Klaiber, H. Allen, 2010. "Is all space created equal? Uncovering the relationship between competing land uses in subdivisions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 296-307, December.
    7. Clément Bellet, 2017. "Essays on Inequality, Social Preferences and Consumer Behavior," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o, Sciences Po.
    8. Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M. & Smeeding, Timothy M. & Tsakloglou, Panos, 2010. "Distributional Effects of Imputed Rents in Five European Countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19(3), pages 167-179.
    9. John I. Carruthers & Gordon F. Mulligan, 2013. "Through the Crisis," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 27(2), pages 124-143, May.
    10. Benítez-Silva, Hugo & Eren, Selçuk & Heiland, Frank & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi, 2015. "How well do individuals predict the selling prices of their homes?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-25.
    11. Paudel, Jayash, 2018. "Community-Managed Forests, Household Fuelwood Use and Food Consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-73.
    12. Prasad Neelawala & Clevo Wilson & Wasantha Athukorala, 2013. "The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values: a study of Mount Isa city, Queensland, Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 57(1), pages 60-78, January.
    13. Lang, Corey, 2015. "The dynamics of house price responsiveness and locational sorting: Evidence from air quality changes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-82.
    14. Ronan Lyons, 2012. "Search costs, sorting and “property ladder†effects: Evidence from the valuation of amenities," ERSA conference papers ersa12p511, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Monique DANTAS & Frédéric GASCHET & Guillaume POUYANNE, 2010. "Regulatory zoning and coastal housing prices: a bayesian hedonic approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2010-12, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    16. Celia Bilbao-Terol & Verónica Cañal-Fernández & Luis Valdés & Eduardo Del Valle, 2017. "Rural Tourism Accommodation Prices by Land Use-Based Hedonic Approach: First Results from the Case Study of the Self-Catering Cottages in Asturias," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-17, September.
    17. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Liu, Xiangping, 2016. "Disentangling property value impacts of environmental contamination from locally undesirable land uses: Implications for measuring post-cleanup stigmaAuthor-Name: Taylor, Laura O," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 85-98.
    18. Zipp, Katherine Y. & Lewis, David J. & Provencher, Bill, 2017. "Does the conservation of land reduce development? An econometric-based landscape simulation with land market feedbacks," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 19-37.
    19. Alla Koblyakova & Larisa Fleishman & Orly Furman, 2022. "Accuracy of Households’ Dwelling Valuations, Housing Demand and Mortgage Decisions: Israeli Case," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 48-74, July.
    20. Clément S. Bellet, 2017. "The paradox of the Joneses: superstar houses and mortgage frenzy in suburban America," CEP Discussion Papers dp1462, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    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:snd:wpaper:113. 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: Anuradhak (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.