Socio-economic determinants of land degradation in Pishin sub-basin, Pakistan

Abstract

Agriculture is the mainstay of rural populations, especially in the developing world. Increasing population and the demand for food, fodder and fuelwood have threatened the sustainability of the land resources. Without understanding farmers' perceptions on land-related issues, sustainable management of land resources is impossible because they have intimate knowledge of their land. Besides technical solutions to land-related problems, socio-economic appraisal also plays an important role for solutions to these problems. Therefore, the objectives of this article are to find farmers' perceptions on land degradation and to examine the socio-economic determinants of land degradation in the study area. In this study, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information on different socio-economic parameters affecting land degradation and farmers' perceptions on the status of land degradation in Pishin sub-basin, Pakistan. Farmers' perceptions are presented using simple descriptive statistics, whereas socio-economic determinants of land degradation in the study area were investigated using a binary logistic regression technique. The model predicted seven determinants of land degradation in the study area: household size, number of educated male members in the household, frequency of visits of extension workers, security of tenure, access to credit, cropping pattern and livestock population.

Keywords:

• socio-economic appraisal
• farmers' perceptions
• land degradation
• binary logistic regression

Acknowledgements

The financial support of the University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan, to carry out this study is acknowledged. Thanks to the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, which provided the ground for this study. The assistance of people from the study area, working as guides, is also acknowledged; without their help in a remote tribal area, it would have been very difficult to carry out the research. We appreciate the constructive comments of anonymous reviewers who were very helpful in improving the quality of this article.