Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The Transition from Arid Farming Systems to Agroforestry Systems in Pakistan: A Comparison of Monetary Returns

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Small-scale Forestry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Thal desert is the third-largest desert in Pakistan, a major part of which consists of dunes. In recent years, a large portion of the Thal farmers has shifted from conventional farming to tree cultivation and border cropping on the dunes. In this study, we compared household income generated from conventional farming and agroforestry. Data on the farming type and various inputs, as well as the demographic characteristics of the farmers, was collected from 382 farm households in the Bhakkar district of Punjab, Pakistan which is one of the six districts of the Thal region. Both OLS-based and endogeneity-adjusted copula correction method (CMM)-based estimates indicated that household income generated from agroforestry (both tree cropping and border cropping) was about three higher than the income generated from conventional farming. However, border cropping being the costliest of all types of farming in terms of input costs, only a small minority of farmers in the Thal desert presently used this farming system. Government interventions such as subsidies and credit facilities can significantly improve the socioeconomic conditions of the farmers by promoting agroforestry in general and border cropping in particular.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Farmers in Pakistan generally use tractor-trollies or trucks to deliver their produce to nearby towns or cities. So, the transportation cost in this study is limited to the cost of transporting produce after harvesting is done. The transportation cost that is incurred on buying seeds, for example, is treated under “other costs” because farmers routinely buy household items such as clothing or shoes when they visit towns or cities to buy seeds. Therefore, only the self-reported transport cost that was incurred specifically for farming purpose is considered.

  2. We tested the one-sided hypothesis that each cost variable is greater than 1. We failed to find any evidence of increasing returns to scale.

References

  • Abbas Q, Han J, Adeel A, Ullah R (2019) Dairy Production under Climatic Risks: Perception, Perceived Impacts and Adaptations in Punjab, Pakistan. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16:4036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acosta-Alba I, Boissy J, Chia E, Andrieu N (2019) Integrating diversity of smallholder coffee cropping systems in environmental analysis. Int J Life Cycle Ass. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01689-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmad S (2017) Agricultural census 2010-Pakistan report Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad, Pakistan

  • Alkire S (2015) Multidimensional poverty in Pakistan. Planning Commission of Pakistan; United Nations Development Programme Pakistan (UNDP); Oxford Poverty and Humand Development Initiative, Islamabad

  • Alkire S, Roche JM, Ballon P, Foster J, Santos ME, Seth S (2015) Multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Amare D, Wondie M, Mekuria W, Darr D (2019) Agroforestry of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia: practices and benefits. Small Scale For 18:39–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anik AR, Rahman S, Sarker JR (2017) Agricultural productivity growth and the role of capital in South Asia (1980–2013). Sustainability 9:470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anjum K, Khan GS, Afzal M, Khan ZH (2011) Economic comparison of agriculture with agroforestry in Tehsil Kamalia, district Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan. J Agric Res 49:551–561

    Google Scholar 

  • Ares M (2020) Changing classes, changing preferences: how social class mobility affects economic preferences. West Eur Polit 43:1211–1237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asfaw S, Shiferaw B, Simtowe F, Lipper L (2012) Impact of modern agricultural technologies on smallholder welfare: evidence from Tanzania and Ethiopia. Food Policy 37:283–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baig MB, Burgess PJ, Fike JH (2020) Agroforestry for healthy ecosystems: constraints, improvement strategies and extension in Pakistan. Agroforest Syst. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-019-00467-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bank C (2017) Climate-smart agriculture in Pakistan. CSA country profiles for Asia series. International Center for Tropical Agriculture

  • Bene J, Beall H, Côté A (1977) Trees, food and people: land management in the tropics. IDRC, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertomeu MG (2003) Smallholder maize-timber agroforestry systems in Northern Mindanao, Philippines: profitability and contribution to the timber industry sector. In: International conference on rural livelihoods, forests and biodiversity, 2003. Citeseer, pp 19–23

  • Binswanger HP, McIntire J (1987) Behavioral and material determinants of production relations in land-abundant tropical agriculture. Econ Dev Cult Change 36:73–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boserup E (2014) The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. Routledge, Singapore

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burian A, Karaya R, Wernersson JE, Egberth M, Lokorwa B, Nyberg G (2019) A community-based evaluation of population growth and agro-pastoralist resilience in Sub-Saharan drylands. Environ Sci Policy 92:323–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caffaro F, Cavallo E (2019) The effects of individual variables, farming system characteristics and perceived barriers on actual use of smart farming technologies: evidence from the Piedmont Region, Northwestern Italy. Agric Basel 9:111. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture9050111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chittapur B, Murthy MM (2019) Structural analysis and mapping of agroforestry systems under irrigated ecosystem in north-eastern part of Karnataka, India. Agroforest Syst 93:1701–1716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Córdova R, Hogarth NJ, Kanninen M (2018) Sustainability of smallholder livelihoods in the ecuadorian highlands: a comparison of agroforestry and conventional agriculture systems in the indigenous territory of Kayambi people. Land 7:45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta S, Meisner C, Wheeler D (2007) Is environmentally friendly agriculture less profitable for farmers? Evidence on integrated pest management in Bangladesh. Rev Agr Econ 29:103–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9353.2006.00332.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon JA, Gibbon DP, Gulliver A (2001) Farming systems and poverty: improving farmers' livelihoods in a changing world. Food and Agriculture Org

  • FAO (2011) The state of food and agriculture: women in agriculture. Rome

  • Gauchan D (2019) Seed Sector Development in Nepal: Opportunities and Options for Improvement. Agricultural transformation in Nepal. Springer, Berlin, pp 199–229

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Pakistan (2018) Pakistan economic survey 2017–18 finance division, economic advisor’s wing: Islamabad, Pakistan

  • Grepperud S (1996) Population pressure and land degradation: the case of Ethiopia. J Environ Econ Manag 30:18–33

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Groom B, Hepburn C (2017) Looking back at social discount rates: the influence of papers, presentations, political preconditions and personalities on policy. Rev Environ Econ Policy 11:336–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gui R, Meierer M, Algesheimer R (2019) REndo: a package to address endogeneity without external instrumental variables. Package REndo version 2.4.1. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria

  • Holmes CB et al (2018) Estimated mortality on HIV treatment among active patients and patients lost to follow-up in 4 provinces of Zambia: findings from a multistage sampling-based survey. PLoS Med 15:e1002489

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Junior HJE, de Melo RX, Sartori MMP, Guerra SPS, Ballarin AW (2016) Sustainable use of eucalypt biomass grown on short rotation coppice for bioenergy. Biomass Bioenerg 90:15–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kang B, Akinnifesi F (2000) Agroforestry as alternative land‐use production systems for the tropics. In: Natural Resources Forum, 2000. vol 2. Wiley Online Library, pp 137–151

  • Kassie M, Zikhali P, Manjur K, Edwards S (2009) Adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: evidence from a semi‐arid region of Ethiopia. In: Natural Resources Forum, 2009. vol 3. Wiley Online Library, pp 189–198

  • Khan M, Mahmood H, Abbas G, Damalas C (2017) Agroforestry systems as alternative land-use options in the arid zone of Thal, Pakistan. Small Scale For 16(4):553–569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulshreshtha AC, Singh G (1999) Valuation of non-market household production. In: Central Statistical Organisation, New Delhi: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), International seminar on time use studies, pp 7–10

  • Kuyah S, Whitney CW, Jonsson M, Sileshi GW, Oborn I, Muthuri CW, Luedeling E (2019) Agroforestry delivers a win-win solution for ecosystem services in sub-Saharan Africa. A meta-analysis. Agron Sustain Dev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-019-0589-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latif A (2009) A critical analysis of school enrollment and literacy rates of girls and women in Pakistan. Educ Stud 45:424–439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee CC, Hsu YC (2009) Endogenous structural breaks, public investment in agriculture and agricultural land productivity in Taiwan. Appl Econ 41:87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840601131748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee S, Malin BA (2013) Education’s role in China’s structural transformation. J Dev Econ 101:148–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.10.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malézieux E et al (2009) Mixing plant species in cropping systems: concepts, tools and models: a review. Sustainable agriculture. Springer, Berlin, pp 329–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Manna M, Ghosh P, Acharya C (2003) Sustainable crop production through management of soil organic carbon in semiarid and tropical India. J Sustain Agric 21:85–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsden C, Martin-Chave A, Cortet J, Hedde M, Capowiez Y (2019) How agroforestry systems influence soil fauna and their functions-a review. Plant Soil 453:29–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCullough EB (2015) Labor productivity and employment gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank

  • Melemez K, Tunay M, Emir T (2014) A Comparison of Productivity in Five Small-Scale Harvesting Systems. Small Scale For 13:35–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-013-9239-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellor JW, Malik SJ (2017) The impact of growth in small commercial farm productivity on rural poverty reduction. World Dev 91:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neupane RP, Sharma KR, Thapa GB (2002) Adoption of agroforestry in the hills of Nepal: a logistic regression analysis. Agric Syst 72:177–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neupane RP, Thapa GB (2001) Impact of agroforestry intervention on soil fertility and farm income under the subsistence farming system of the middle hills, Nepal. Agric Ecosyst Environ 84:157–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2017) 6th population and housing census-2017. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Islamabad

  • Park S, Gupta S (2012) Handling endogenous regressors by joint estimation using copulas. Mark Sci 31:567–586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pender J, Gebremedhin B (2007) Determinants of agricultural and land management practices and impacts on crop production and household income in the highlands of Tigray Ethiopia. J Afr Econ 17(3):395–450. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejm028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pender JL, Place F, Ehui SK (1999) Strategies for sustainable agricultural development in the East African highlands

  • Phiri D, Franzel S, Mafongoya P, Jere I, Katanga R, Phiri S (2004) Who is using the new technology? The association of wealth status and gender with the planting of improved tree fallows in Eastern Province, Zambia. Agric Syst 79:131–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Praveen B, Sharma P (2019) A review of literature on climate change and its impacts on agriculture productivity. J Public Aff. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1960

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rathore SS, Shekhawat K, Singh RK, Upadhyay PK, Singh VK (2019) Best management practices for doubling oilseed productivity: Aiming India for self reliance in edible oil. Indian J Agr Sci 89:1225–1231

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rehman A, Jingdong L, Hussain I (2015) The province-wise literacy rate in Pakistan and its impact on the economy. Pac Sci Rev B Human Soc Sci 1:140–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson K, Fletcher T (2020) Community sport development events, social capital and social mobility: a case study of premier league kicks and young black and minoritized ethnic males in England. Soccer Soc 21:79–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saad AA, Singh U, Masood A, Praharaj CS (2016) Productivity and economics of kharif fodder intercropping under dryland condition of temperate Kashmir valley. Range Manag Agrofor 37:108–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Santiago-Arenas R, Hadi SN, Fanshuri BA, Ullah H, Datta A (2019) Effect of nitrogen fertiliser and cultivation method on root systems of rice subjected to alternate wetting and drying irrigation. Ann Appl Biol 175:388–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sikazwe I et al (2019) Retention and viral suppression in a cohort of HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy in Zambia: regionally representative estimates using a multistage-sampling-based approach. PLoS Med 16:e1002811

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh V, Sharma S, Kunal GSK, Choudhary R, Singh R (2019) Synergistic use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and spectral properties for improving nutrient use efficiencies in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Commun Soil Sci Plan. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2019.1689259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teixeira WF, Soares LH, Fagan EB, Mello SD, Reichardt K, Dourado-Neto D (2019) Amino acids as stress reducers in soybean plant growth under different water-deficit conditions. J Plant Growth Regul. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-019-10032-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The World Bank (2008) World development report 2008: agriculture for development. The World Bank, Washington

  • UNDP (2018) Human development indices and indicators: 2018 statistical update. New York, USA

  • Usher D (1966) Income as a measure of productivity: alternative comparisons of agricultural and non-agricultural productivity in Thailand. Economica 33:430–441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vandermeer J, van Noordwijk M, Anderson J, Ong C, Perfecto I (1998) Global change and multi-species agroecosystems: concepts and issues. Agric Ecosyst Environ 67:1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ye LF, Robertson PE (2019) Hitting the Great Wall: structural change and China’s growth slowdown. China Econ Rev 56:101302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101302

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hafiz Zahid Mahmood.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

This study complies with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee, the Departmental Academic Review Committee (DARC), as well as the national research standards of Pakistan.

Ethical Approval

The approval of the DARC has been obtained regarding the ethical considerations of the research.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was received from the respondents of the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abbas, G., Ali, A., Khan, M. et al. The Transition from Arid Farming Systems to Agroforestry Systems in Pakistan: A Comparison of Monetary Returns. Small-scale Forestry 20, 325–350 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-020-09470-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-020-09470-5

Keywords

Navigation