Diemuth E. Pemsl

Assessing the impact of fisheries co-management interventions in developing countries: A meta-analysis

Co-management is now established as a mainstream approach to small-scale fisheries management across the developing world. A comprehensive review of 204 potential cases reveals a lack of impact assessments of fisheries co-management. This study reports on a meta-analysis of the impact of fisheries co-management in developing countries in 90 sites across 29 case-studies. The top five most frequently measured process indicators are participation, influence, rule compliance, control over resources, and conflict. The top five most frequently measured outcome indicators are access to resources, resource well-being, fishery yield, household well-being, and household income. To deal with the diversity of the 52 indicators measured and the different ways these data are collected and analysed, we apply a coding system to capture change over time. The results of the meta-analysis suggest that, overall fisheries co-management delivers benefits to end-users through improvements in key process and outcome indicators. However, the dataset as a whole is constituted primarily of data from the Philippines. When we exclude this body of work, few generalisations can be made about the impact of fisheries co-management. The lack of comparative data suitable for impact assessment and the difficulties in comparing data and generalising across countries and regions reiterates calls in other fields for more systematic approaches to understanding and evaluating governance frameworks.

Why Do Some Bt-Cotton Farmers in China Continue to Use High Levels of Pesticides?

China was the first developing country to introduce Bt cotton on a large scale. This paper provides an indepth economic analysis of Bt cotton production by small-scale farmers in China. Data were collected in 2002 in Linqing County, in Shandong Province and comprised a season-long cotton production monitoring with 150 farmers and complementary household interviews. For quality assessment, the Bt toxin concentration of the various Bt varieties used by the farmers was determined for each plot. All farmers were growing insect resistant Bt cotton varieties. Yet, they sprayed high amounts of chemical insecticides, out of which 40% were extremely or highly hazardous. The paper reviews methodological issues inherent to impact assessment of crop biotechnology and identifies market and institutional failure as possible reasons for continued high pesticide use. Using the damage function methodology the coefficients for both damage control inputs, i.e., Bt varieties (measured as toxin concentration), and insecticide quantity were not significantly different from zero. Results show that absence of enabling institutions and lack of farmer knowledge can considerably limit the benefits of Bt cotton for small-scale farmers. The paper points out the importance to include the institutional conditions in the evaluation of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries.

Specification and Estimation of Production Functions Involving Damage Control Inputs: A Two-Stage, Semiparametric Approach

Productivity assessment of damage control inputs (such as pesticides) is complicated because their effect depends on the exposure to damage agents (such as pests). We discuss some open specification and estimation issues. The contribution is threefold. First, we elaborate the separability conditions for the damage control function and production function. Second, we employ a two-stage semiparametric technique to combine attractive features of both nonparametric and parametric approaches. Third, we model the interaction between pest exposure and damage control inputs by using slope dummies. An application to productivity analysis of small scale Bt cotton production in China illustrates the approach.

Long-term impact of Bt cotton: findings from a case study in China using panel data

Bt cotton has been cultivated in China for a decade. Studies have been conducted to assess theimpact on productivity and pesticide use. Limitations of these studies are the short time period considered and the reliability of data. This paper presents findings from monitoring 150 Bt cotton farmers in Shandong province in 2002 and 2005. Descriptive analysis reveals that pesticide use increased while seed price and Bt toxin concentration decreased. The Bt variable was consistently insignificant in the estimated production function with damage control specification and a fixed effects model. There is indication that poor standards in Bt varieties have caused this result. Due to market imperfections and emergence of a largely unregulated seed market for genetically modified crops, Bt toxin levels may be below the threshold required to effectively control target pests. Furthermore, rising cotton prices may have created additional incentive to increase pesticide applications. The emergence of secondary pests calls for further in-depth studies that should include local agro-ecological conditions. Our results indicate that farmers with more experience in Bt cotton cultivation apply less pesticides, confirming the findings of other studies that farmer knowledge and understanding of the Bt technology is an important condition for its success.

Informal networks in policy processes: the case of community-based fisheries management in Bangladesh

A significant share of research for development aims at improving policy. The authors use the case of community-based fisheries management in Bangladesh to demonstrate how social network analysis can be applied to explore policy influence. Influence is an important intermediary step to impact. Data were collected in expert surveys conducted in 2007. The informal network that emerged during the project directly links local non-governmental organisations and grass-root organisations to development and administrative government organs. Decision-makers at the government planning level stated they received information from project partners, thus providing evidence for the policy influencing role of the analysed project.