Articles
EX ANTE ASSESSMENT OF WATER HARVESTING TECHNIQUES IN THE JORDANIAN BADIA: A MINIMUM-DATA APPROACH
Article number
1054_14
Pages
127 – 134
Language
English
Abstract
The Badia of Jordan is severely degraded due to continuous grazing, cutting and plowing.
Water-harvesting practices, which capture and concentrate surface runoff for crop or range production, can help to re-establish the productive functioning of these Badia environments.
There is a need for timely ex ante impact assessment studies to support research priority setting as well as policy decision making (Thornton et al., 2003). The aim of this study is to use the MD approach to assess the potential adoption of water-harvesting techniques.
The proposed methodology, which is based on the minimum-data (MD) approach described by Antle and Valdivia (2006), uses available data to characterize the distributions of returns to both actual and potential alternative technologies and associated water-harvesting management practices in the farm population, and then uses those distributions to assess the economic feasibility of farmers adopting the alternative practices.
In contrast to analyses based on conventional representative farm models that cannot realistically assess potential adoption rates, this methodology provides an estimate of the rate of adoption of a new technology which is water-harvesting techniques in a heterogeneous farm population.
Results of the study showed that the adoption rate was estimated to be about 85% which is considered high and higher average total yields could result in an adoption rate over 80%. Despite the limitations of the methodology, this study yielded insights into the way the inclusion of water-harvesting techniques in the agricultural system could assist in improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers operating in the mixed crop-livestock systems in the Jordan Badia.
The minimum-data approach offers a flexible framework for evaluating innovations and new technologies using scarce data of resource-poor countries in rain-fed areas and other parts of the world.
It allows for a rapid integrative analysis for timely advice to policymakers and for the exploration of technology options.
Water-harvesting practices, which capture and concentrate surface runoff for crop or range production, can help to re-establish the productive functioning of these Badia environments.
There is a need for timely ex ante impact assessment studies to support research priority setting as well as policy decision making (Thornton et al., 2003). The aim of this study is to use the MD approach to assess the potential adoption of water-harvesting techniques.
The proposed methodology, which is based on the minimum-data (MD) approach described by Antle and Valdivia (2006), uses available data to characterize the distributions of returns to both actual and potential alternative technologies and associated water-harvesting management practices in the farm population, and then uses those distributions to assess the economic feasibility of farmers adopting the alternative practices.
In contrast to analyses based on conventional representative farm models that cannot realistically assess potential adoption rates, this methodology provides an estimate of the rate of adoption of a new technology which is water-harvesting techniques in a heterogeneous farm population.
Results of the study showed that the adoption rate was estimated to be about 85% which is considered high and higher average total yields could result in an adoption rate over 80%. Despite the limitations of the methodology, this study yielded insights into the way the inclusion of water-harvesting techniques in the agricultural system could assist in improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers operating in the mixed crop-livestock systems in the Jordan Badia.
The minimum-data approach offers a flexible framework for evaluating innovations and new technologies using scarce data of resource-poor countries in rain-fed areas and other parts of the world.
It allows for a rapid integrative analysis for timely advice to policymakers and for the exploration of technology options.
Authors
S. Akroush
Keywords
adoption rate, economic model, Atriplex, barley, Jordan
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