Two essays on socio-economic aspects of soil degradation
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This publication contains two papers which analyse the relationship between poverty and soil degradation. The first adopts a qualitative approach while the second uses innovative quantitative methods involving the use of geographic information systems (GIS) data. In both cases, the focus is on providing a better understanding of the incentives and constraints of poor farmers in making soil management decisions, and the policy implications these have for poverty alleviation and improved environme ntal management. The first paper by Lipper starts with a brief introduction to the major issues of analysing natural capital assets in an investment framework, followed by a discussion of the key determinants of investment behaviour and the role of environmental externalities in investment analysis. Then, a detailed analysis of the costs associated with soil degradation from the farmers' perspective is given, including the impacts on average productivity and the variance of agricultural yi elds. A description of the theoretical and empirical literature on the investment constraints of poor farmers follows, together with an analysis of the implications for soil investment behaviour. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for policy-making and an agenda for research based upon information gaps identified throughout the paper. One of the research areas identified is the quantitative analysis of causal links between poverty and soil degradation, which is the subject of the second paper presented in this volume. The second paper by Osgood and Lipper focuses on methodological issues involved in conducting quantitative analyses of causal relationships between poverty and soil degradation. The two key methodological issues addressed in the paper are: (i) the problem of endogeneity between dependent and independent variables; and (ii) the methods and implications of combining spatially referenced GIS and socio-economic data in statistical analysis. The pap er presents the results of econometric analyses of poverty and soil degradation at national and subnational levels for Africa and Ghana.