Can Irrigation Conditions Improve Farmers’ Subjective Well-being? An Investigation in Rural Pakistan
1
Department of Economics, Government College University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
2
School of Economics and Management, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China
3
Beijing Business Management College, Beijing 100028, China
4
Beijing Key Lab of Study on Sci-Tech Strategy for Urban Green Development, School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
5
Centre for Economic Research, Shandong University, Ji’nan 250000, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Jean L. Steiner and Adriana Bruggeman
Water 2021, 13(4), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040505
Received: 23 November 2020 / Revised: 8 February 2021 / Accepted: 11 February 2021 / Published: 16 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Conservation in Irrigated Agricultural Systems)
In many developing countries, including Pakistan, the enormous water losses due to outdated irrigation infrastructure threaten livelihoods and food security, while investment in the development of efficiency improvements can help the countries to cope with water scarcity and improve farmers’ wellbeing. This study evaluates how rural farmers’ decisions regarding improving irrigation watercourses and other irrigation conditions affect their wellbeing. We employ hypothesis testing and an ordered logit model on field survey data of 300 farming households from rural Pakistan. The mean test results suggest that farmers on lined watercourses are happier than those on unlined and partially lined watercourses. The regression results suggest that farmers on a fully lined watercourse have higher wellbeing than those on a partially lined watercourse. The time taken by canal water and groundwater to reach farmers’ land reduces their wellbeing. Irrigation quotas, the return of stolen water and the distance of groundwater sources from land have positive effects on farmers’ wellbeing. The study establishes a strong correlation between irrigation conditions, improved irrigation network and farmers’ wellbeing.
View Full-Text
▼
Show Figures
Figure A1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Nadeem, A.M.; Ali, T.; Wei, W.; Cui, Q.; Huang, S. Can Irrigation Conditions Improve Farmers’ Subjective Well-being? An Investigation in Rural Pakistan. Water 2021, 13, 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040505
AMA Style
Nadeem AM, Ali T, Wei W, Cui Q, Huang S. Can Irrigation Conditions Improve Farmers’ Subjective Well-being? An Investigation in Rural Pakistan. Water. 2021; 13(4):505. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040505
Chicago/Turabian StyleNadeem, Abdul M.; Ali, Tariq; Wei, Wei; Cui, Qi; Huang, Shaoan. 2021. "Can Irrigation Conditions Improve Farmers’ Subjective Well-being? An Investigation in Rural Pakistan" Water 13, no. 4: 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040505
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit
