Book Review

One of the most serious resource management problems confronting the world is the problem of dryland degradation.  Drylands are areas distinguished by relatively low precipitation levels, ranging from 800 millimetres per annum (subhumid) to less than 100 millimetres (hyperarid).  They encompass an enormous diversity of terrains and ecosystems, ranging from rain-fed cropland and rangeland to savannahs and steppes, and typically support large numbers of human communities. 

In recent decades, burgeoning human population growth, intensive land-use and grazing by domesticated animals and deforestation have impinged very adversely upon the biological and physical resources of drylands.  These pressures, in turn, have reduced their productivity, and hence, utility to the human communities that depend on them. 

Given that the efforts of international agencies and national governments to arrest or reverse this trend have largely failed, The Economics of Dryland Management is both a timely and topical work.  The book integrates an understanding of complex inter-relationships between the physical, climatic and human factors of dryland ecosystems, within an economic framework directed at developing better management strategies for these areas. 

According to Mesrs. Dixon, et.al., the key factor in dryland degradation is the divergence between public (social) and private costs and benefits.  Much of the degradation observed in dryland ecosystems the world over results from the (over) use of dryland resources in a way that is perceived to be optimal by individuals.  From the perspective of the individual farmer, the benefits potentially offered by improved dry land management often do not match the costs associated with it.  This is particularly true in the case of the subsistence framer, whose very survival typically depends on the over-exploitation of his small-holding.  Only when individual welfare safely exceeds this critical limit is it possible for the individual farmer to consider improved dryland management policies and methods from the converging perspectives of private and social interests. 

This insight permeates the economic assessment and planning techniques suggested in the book.  These techniques, which are intended to impart rigours to the analysis of dryland development projects, are unusually comprehensive in scope and integrate operational and other considerations at all levels of application.  Indeed, they consider contexts as limited as that inhabited by a single farmer, to ones as expansive as those addressed by national development planning processes. 

Two important techniques advocated are social benefit cost analysis (SBCA) and cost-effective analysis (CEA), both of which are based on the observed actions of individuals.  SBCA focuses on the positive and negative social welfare repercussions of a proposed project.  It considers such non-mobilizable effects of a project as the social effects of offsite environmental impacts. 

When the benefits of a project are not quantifiable, CEA provides an alternate means of analysis.  Based on the target to be attained by a given project (e.g. maximum permissible level of soil erosion per hectare per year; a given percentage increase in crop production; the desired level of carrying capacity for grazing animals that a certain plot of land should possess), CEA uses information regarding the expenditures necessary to attain this to arrive at an estimate of the potential benefits of the intervention.  For instance, in a situation where water pollution is a significant problem in dryland degradation, one could use CEA to examine the costs involved in making polluted water potable (by boiling, filtering and so on) to devise an a surrogate market estimate of the value placed on clean water. 

In addition to SBCA and CEA, decision analysis and computer simulation models are also discussed in models are discussed with a view to integrating them into sectoral development planning.  Techniques drawn from decision theory are also examined to illuminate problems of uncertainty, which are endemic to dryland management problems. 

The economic approach of Messrs.  Dixon et.al., to dryland management seems to be relevant, for at least two reasons.  First, it demonstrates that long-term economic gains can in fact be attained without sacrificing the natural resource base of a dryland ecosystem.  Conversely, the approach is capable of illuminating the fact that drylands are, in themselves, a repository for valuable natural resources.  Second, it is eminently policy-relevant, and thereby ensures that the insights derived from its analyses can be easily translated into projects and programs. 

Such interventions are urgently necessary at this juncture, for dryland degradation is increasing at an alarming rate.  Unless preventive measures are taken by national governments and aid agencies over the course of the next few decades, there will be significant deterioration of both rangelands and rainfed croplands by the year 2000, particularly in developing countries. 

Books such as The Economics of Dryland Management, which provide the basis for sensible development planning, are particularly welcome in this context, since they might well contain the key to a better, more sustainable use of the world’s dryland resources.  q

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