Agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa has, in recent times, remained lower than the rest of the world. Many attribute this to factors inherent to Africa and its people, such as climate, soil ...quality, slavery and disease. This article traces the role of agriculture through history and argues that these are not the main reasons. Before the arrival of European traders, complex agricultural systems existed, which supported food security, manufacturing and trade. External interference manipulated these systems in pursuit of export crops. Independence has not fundamentally changed this; resource and wealth extraction continue to inhibit economic development for Africans in Africa.
AbstractThis research explores potable water consumers’ willingness to pay to fund up-front investments in their potable water supply services (PWSSs), which will reduce rates in the longer term. An ...online survey of 1,970 New Zealand PWSS consumers was carried out in 2011 to identify factors that influence individual discount rates (IDRs) related to PWSS investments—a first of its kind—using dichotomous choice questions. Constrained latent class models (LCMs)—an established technique—were used to test the presence of a class of respondents that is unwilling to invest—a phenomenon that has not yet been tested for PWSS consumers. Confirming PWSS consumers’ IDRs will help water suppliers understand the factors more conducive to consumer support of long-term PWSS investments. The research showed that consumers have an 82% chance of having high discount rates of 45%–55%, and an 18% chance of always being likely to support initial payment increases in the interest of future savings. Decision makers should be aware of high IDRs, but they should recognize that there is a class of consumers that strongly supports long-term investments.
The new water policy paradigm has been vigorously implemented and pursued in Australia since the early 1990s. This paper analyses how elements of this new paradigm have been adopted and perceived by ...irrigators within two different states of the Murray-Darling Basin in south eastern Australia and how these policies have had an impact on the lives and aspirations of farming families. The analyses are based on 700 telephone interviews with irrigators who have bought and sold water on the markets for temporary or permanent water as well as irrigators who have never traded. The analyses suggest that the impact and perception of the new policy instruments are not primarily delineated between buyers and sellers in the water market as could have been expected, but by the irrigators' position in the adjustment process, which determines how the irrigators are active in the water market.
Irrigation development in Sub-Saharan Africa has lagged significantly behind that in other developing countries. Consequently, economic development and food security are also lagging behind. Since ...the mid-2000s there has been a resurgence in the willingness to invest in irrigation, and Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest potential of any developing region to benefit from it. However, to gain from new investment in irrigation without repeating past failures, it is critical to develop a business model for small-scale irrigation schemes. This article explores the barriers that such a model needs to address to be successful and the opportunities this represents for irrigators' profitability.
This article analyzes the relationship between perceived service quality and averting behaviours and averting expenditures across prominent water service attributes, using revealed preference survey ...data from New Zealand water supply customers. It finds that nearly 50% of consumers undertake averting behaviours, investing substantial amounts in improving their water service quality. Unexpectedly, lower-income households were more likely to undertake averting behaviours for the same perceived service quality, and spent more in their averting behaviours. This suggests that the burden of low-quality service is greater on lower-income households, not only relative to income but in absolute terms.
Water markets have been used by Australian irrigators as a way to reduce risk and uncertainty in times of low water allocations and rainfall. However, little is known about how irrigators' bidding ...trading behavior in water markets compares to other markets, nor is it known what role uncertainty and a lack of water in a variable and changing climate plays in influencing behavior. This paper studies irrigator behavior in Victorian water markets over a decade (a time period that included a severe drought). In particular, it studies the evidence for price clustering (when water bids/offers end mostly around particular numbers), a common phenomenon present in other established markets. We found that clustering in bid/offer prices in Victorian water allocation markets was influenced by uncertainty and strategic behavior. Water traders evaluate the costs and benefits of clustering and act according to their risk aversion levels. Water market buyer clustering behavior was mostly explained by increased market uncertainty (in particular, hotter and drier conditions), while seller-clustering behavior is mostly explained by strategic behavioral factors which evaluate the costs and benefits of clustering.
The Canadian province of Alberta has incorporated market-based instruments into recent policy to manage non-point-source pollution. Investigating context-specific social discourses through the ...Q-method provides a timely understanding of why these instruments have not been well implemented in southern Alberta, and may assist in developing their potential. This article identifies four distinct discourses, named Incentive Orienteers, Rural Advocates, Honest Brokers and Progressive Producers.
Structural adjustment is an ongoing process within Australian agriculture. Governments have encouraged this process through rural adjustment schemes and since the 1990s, water markets and pricing ...policies have been seen as drivers of the process. This paper investigates the structural adjustment impact of temporary water markets within the Pyramid-Boort and Torrumbarry irrigation districts in northern Victoria. This investigation is based on interviews with temporary buyers and sellers in the market during 1998/99. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to the outcome of this process to group farm businesses depending on their position in the farm adjustment process. These analyses suggest that all sectors of the farming community use water markets to cope with the adjustment pressures. One group uses the markets to retain their farming lifestyle, another group uses it as part of the adjustment process to become larger and more viable, while a third group uses it opportunistically. The irrigators who are not using the market are significantly smaller and use all their water. The research outcome strongly supports that structural adjustment schemes should concentrate on assisting adjusting farmers to become economically viable and to adopt best practice natural resource management.
Despite the crucial role of knowledge production in environmental decision-making, previous research provides limited practical insight into the knowledge-related outcomes that can be achieved ...through collaboration, or the associated determinants of success. In this multiple case study, knowledge production is analysed in a collaborative water allocation planning process in South Australia. A theoretical framework was developed and used to systematically evaluate and compare knowledge-related processes and outcome criteria across four planning catchments. Data sources included 62 semi-structured interviews, documents and personal observations. Most of the theorised outcomes were achieved across the cases; however, only one case had generated widespread acceptance among participants of the knowledge that was used to develop the water allocation plan. Comparing processes across the cases revealed key factors that influenced their outcomes. Ultimately, community participants across the cases had limited involvement in technical investigations, suggesting the need to re-examine expectations about the potential for joint fact-finding within collaborative processes that are limited in scope and duration and nested within broader state-driven processes.
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