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Ecosystem Services and Agricultural Land-use Practices: a Case Study of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

Golam Rasul
Economic Analysis Division, Sustainable Livelihood & Poverty Reduction, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD),

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Land degradation due to inappropriate agricultural land use activities, along with the environmental and social aspects associated with these practices, had been accelerated in many developing regions of the world. This trend underlines the importance of measuring environmental costs and benefits to improve policy making with respect to land use and agriculture. Using non market valuation techniques, this study estimated the value of environmental services associated with four agricultural land-use systems in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and compares their relative profitability from private and social perspectives. The financial analysis revealed that, annual cash crops are the most profitable short term land use and agro forestry was the least profitable, with horticulture and farm forestry providing benefits intermediate between these two systems. However, the relatively larger returns from annual cash cropping lead to higher environmental costs such as soil erosion, forfeited carbon sequestration, and biodiversity loss. When the environmental costs are taken into account, annual cash crops appear to be the most costly land-use system, with agro forestry and farm forestry becoming more profitable. The findings demonstrate the tradeoffs and synergies between relatively more environmentally sustainable and harmful land-use practices. Financial incentives to encourage more prudent agricultural activities are needed to transform tradeoffs into synergies. This article examined different financial incentive mechanisms-including payments for environmental services-and concluded with several policy recommendations.

Keywords: Agricultural practices, Land use, Cost-benefit analysis, Contingent valuation, Socioeconomics, Environmental effects

Location: Chittagong Hill Tracts

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Analysis and interpretations

Objectives:

To understand the agricultural land-use practices
To determine the effect of ecosystem services in the Chittagong Hill Tracts(CHT) of Bangladesh

Methodology:

The study was based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were assembled through a household survey, focus groups, key informant interviews, and case studies. The research was carried out in two stages in two representative sub districts, namely Bandarban Sadar and Alikadam in the Bandarban district of CHT. Initial information on farmers’ socioeconomic conditions, land-use practices, land-management activities, farming systems, employment, income, and personal experiences in the four different land-use types were collected from 304 randomly sampled farm households using a standard questionnaire. The first phase was followed by the collection of additional information on more specific land-use practices such as area under cultivation, volumes and prices of inputs and outputs, and land management activities and time spent on each activity. Data were collected through detailed interviews administered to a randomly sampled farm households that had participated in the first phase of research. The information provided by individual farmers were verified through FGD and interviews with key informants, agricultural extension agents, forestry officials, local non governmental organization (NGO) workers, and, particularly, land-user groups through focus-group discussions.Other sub-titles that were not possible to include here, wer; Valuation of Environmental Services: Methodological Approaches, Specification of Land-Use Systems Under Study, Sampling Procedures, Estimation of Financial Costs and Benefits, Estimation of Returns to Land, Estimation of Environmental Services, Estimation of Soil Erosion, Estimation of Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity Services,

Source of Information: Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, http://ejournal.nbii.org

Article Link (Online Journal): http://sspp.proquest.com/static_content/vol5iss2/0805-014.rasul.pdf

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The findings demonstrate the tradeoffs and synergies between relatively more environmentally sustainable and harmful land-use practices. Financial incentives to encourage more prudent agricultural activities were found to be required to transform tradeoffs into synergies.

Knowledge Management: Journal