Number 33-08, November 2008

Are Forests Always a ‘Good Thing’? Understand-ing the Linkages among Forests, Watershedsand Agriculture in the Western Ghats of IndiaWhat is the role of tropical forests in the functioning of watersheds andhow does this affect agriculture and farmers? In this SANDEE study,researchers provide new insights into this issue. They find that, for acertain type of irrigation system, an increase in forest cover can actuallyreduce the amount of water available for agriculture. This can stop farmersgrowing irrigated crops and can, in turn, have a negative impact on theirlivelihoods.

Researchers from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmentand Development in Bangalore, India, carried out the study. It is one ofthe first pieces of research of its type in south Asia. It underlines theoften complex relationship between habitat conservation and agriculture,and highlights the need for environmental policy makers to take intoaccount the social and economic impacts of their decisions. Its findingsare of particular importance for policy makers across South Asia, wherelarge populations use forests and water resources intensively.

INVESTIGATING WATERSHED SERVICES

Tropical forests provide a wide range of incredibly important ‘services’,such as habitats for plants and animals and food, medicines and otherresources for people. These forests also supply a range of vital ‘watershedservices’ that include groundwater recharge, flood control and soilconservation. Although these services are known to be very important, itis becoming clear that the relationship between forest cover and the‘health’ of a watershed is not straightforward or always positive. It is nowaccepted that the effects of forest degradation or restoration on watershedfunctioning will vary depending on climate, spatial scale, rainfall intensityand many other factors.

From an economic point of view, it is important to know how forest coveraffects the water available for agriculture. The aim of this study is toprovide an understanding into this question. To do this, it focuses on adegraded catchment area in the hills and forests around Baragi village, asmall hamlet in the Chamrajnagar district of Karnataka state. In thisregion, extensive areas of natural forests have been transformed intomonoculture tree plantations, grasslands, scrub and coffee, tea andrubber plantations (for more information on the study area see theside bar).

This policy brief is based on SANDEE working paper No. 36-08, ‘Economic impacts of changes in hydrological services fromforest ecosystems: Findings from a low rainfall location in the Western Ghats of India’ by Sharachchandra Lélé, Iswar Patil,Shrinivas Badiger, Ajit Menon, Rajeev Kumar from the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development,ISEC Campus, Nagarabhavi, Bangalore 560 072, India. The full report is available at www.sandeeonline.org

The researchers find out how wateravailability affects crop choice andproductivity and, in turn, assesshow this affects the economicwelfare of local people – in termsof farmers’ income and theemployment of land-less workers.They then look at how changes inforest cover would translate intochanges in the amount of wateravailable for agriculture. This allowsthe link between forest cover,agricultural productivity andeconomic well being to beestablished.

THE STUDY SITE

The village of Baragi lies in theWestern Ghats region of India,amongst the hills and forests ofBandipur. This is in a southernfringe area that separates theMysore region of Karnataka statefrom the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu andthe Wynaad region in Kerala. Theplains around the Bandipur forestare dotted with irrigation tanks. Thetanks, created by earthenembankments, impound the flowof streams. When they areadequately filled, water is let out ofthe tanks through sluices. Thewater then flows through channelsthat provide gravity-based irrigationto farmland downhill from thetanks.

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Baragi itself is a large hamlet, hometo 392 households drawn fromvarious castes and landholdingcategories. The extent of irrigatedland around the village issignificant. It comprises about 15%of the cultivated area; this landincludes a tank ‘command area’of 54.7 ha (135 acres) and a wellirrigated area of 19 ha (47 acres).The productivity of irrigated landsis several times higher than that ofrain-fed areas. This means that thetank irrigation system is of directconcern to a significant fraction ofhouseholds in Baragi village (144out of 392). It is also of indirectconcerns to many of the landlesspeople who work on thesehousehold’s farms.

TANK IRRIGATION ANDINFORMATION

The catchment area under studyis drained by the Baragi streamwhich flows through Baragi village.Agriculture is the main occupationin the area, and the local farmersrely heavily on water from a largeirrigation tank that is filled by thestream. This tank was constructedin the 19th century and thenrenovated and expanded to itspresent size in 1982. Theimportant irrigated crops in the areainclude paddy and sugarcane. Themain dry crops are jowar, ragi,cotton and marigold.

The farmers in Baragi make theirkey agricultural decisions based onthe amount of water in the irrigationtank. Farmers have to decide by theend of June whether there isenough water in the tank to irrigatea four-month paddy crop during thekharif (June-Nov) season. If not,they opt to cultivate jowar (a non-irrigated crop). Similarly, if the tankis adequately fil led by early

Figure 1: Location of Karnataka State (with district boundaries), WesternGhats region and Bandipur study site

December, the farmers opt for a six-month summer (Dec-June) paddycrop; otherwise they leave their land largely fallow. A total of 144 farmersown land in the area irrigated by the tank.

Two main types of information were gathered for the study. Basic socio-economic data was collected on household demographics, education,occupation, and landholdings. Data was also collected on agriculturallabour, inputs, costs and production statistics. Much of this informationwas collected using the ‘diary’ method (in which farmers maintaineddaily notes on farming activities and inputs) and through weeklyverification by field researchers. Harvest data was collected through directobservations in the field and from discussions with farmers. Data wascollected during two growing seasons and about 25% of the farmerswho use water from the irrigation tank took part in the survey.

WATER, EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME

The researchers first assess the impact of irrigation on income andemployment. They find that if water is available for irrigation during thekharif season (i.e. if the tank fills up in June) then a farmer is able toearn an average Rs. 2,400 more than he would when water is not availableand he has to grow ‘dry crops’. This translates into an overall increase innet income for farmers of Rs.345,800. The researchers also find thatthe availability of water during this season provides an increase in the

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amount of money earned by agricultural labourers. This increase amountsto about Rs.164,100 and is shared by landless labourers and smalllandholders who do not own irrigated land.

In the summer season, the researchers find that the availability ofirrigation water provides an increase of Rs.10,500 in net income perfarmer. It also more than doubles the amount of money earned bylabourers and reduces the need for them to migrate out of the region insearch for work.

The researchers then assess the impact of forest cover on the watershedand, in particular, on the amount of water available for irrigation. To dothis they first work out how much water is flowing out of the catchmentinto the tank. This is then compared to the amount of rainfall thecatchment receives. This analysis gives a figure of 18% for the runoffcoefficient of the catchment (this is a measure of the relationship betweenrunoff and rainfall). The next step is to compare this result with the run-off coefficient for a fully forested catchment inside the nearby BandipurNational Park. This is known to be around 12%. In practical terms, thismeans that there is more water available for tank storage in Baragi,where the degraded forests use up less of the water.

FOREST COVER BAD FOR FARMERS

The comparison between the run-offs from the two areas shows that thefull regeneration of the forest in the Baragi tank catchment would leadto a 6% decline in the runoff coefficient of the area. The practical resultof such a change would be that more rainfall would be required to fill thevillagers’ irrigation tank. It would also mean that the average time periodbetween rainfalls sufficient to fill the tank would increase. The researcherscalculate that, if the runoff coefficient for the catchment declined to12%, this period would increase from approximately two years to

approximately six years. Any furtherreduction, even by one or twopercentage points, would result ina sharp increase of this time periodup to ten years. The currentprobability that the tank fills in Juneis 20%, the researchers find thatthis probability would decline toabout 7% if the catchment forestwas allowed to regenerate.

Because the regeneration of theforest would reduce the runoffcoefficient of the Baragi catchmentand would reduce the probability ofthe irrigation tank filling, it wouldtherefore reduce the probability offarmers being able to cultivate anirrigated paddy crop in eitherseason. As the researchers show,less frequent paddy crop cultivationresults in significant reductions innet income and wage employment.It therefore appears that theregeneration of the forest in theBaragi catchment would have asignificant negative impact on thefarmers who use water from theirrigation tank. The researcherscalculate that it would result in a49% decline in the average netincomes of these farmers and a33% decline in the average wagefor people who work on affectedfarms.

A COMPLEX PICTURE

Although it is clear that in theBaragi catchment forest rege-neration will have negativeeconomic impacts, this is obviouslynot the case for all forest areas. Theoutcome of the Baragi studyreflects the particular way in whichstreams in the area are impoundedand used by the local communityand by the ways in which cropcultivation decisions are made. Thekind of agriculture carried out inBaragi depends on a quick runoff

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SANDEE SPONSORS

This policy brief is an output of aresearch project funded by SANDEE.The view’s expressed here are notnecessarily those of SANDEE’ssponsors.

SANDEE

The South Asian Network forDevelopment and EnvironmentalEconomics (SANDEE) is a regionalnetwork that seeks to bring togetheranalysts from the different countriesin South Asia to address theirdevelopment-environment problems.Its mission is to strengthen thecapacity of individuals andinstitutions in South Asia to undertakeresearch on the inter-linkages amongeconomic development, poverty, andenvironmental change, and, todisseminate practical information thatcan be applied to developmentpolicies. SANDEE’s activities coverBangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India,Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SANDEE’s Policy Brief Series seek to in-

form a wide and general audience about

research and policy findings from

SANDEE studies.

Author

Sharachchandra Lele et.al

Editor

Rufus Bellamy

Series Editor

Priya Shyamsundar

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from the tank catchment area. Forest cover therefore affects it muchmore significantly than it would other agricultural systems that do notrely on such irrigation systems. The researchers also highlight the factthat forest regeneration will have other positive impacts that are not takeninto account in their study. These benefits might include better accessto forest products or the stabilisation of groundwater supplies.

The researchers underline the specific nature of their findings andemphasise that forest regeneration does not negatively affect allcommunities living in forested catchment areas. However, they highlightthe fact that their study shows the importance of understanding thecomplicated link between forest cover, water supply and agriculture - alink that is technological and social in nature. In other words, theyrecommend that policy-makers must move away from simplistic notionsof forests being good for everything and everybody in all circumstances.

Possible Impacts of Catchment Forest Regeneration on theBaragi Agricultural Economy

Scenario Season Probabilityof tankfilling

Expectedvalue of

net income

Expected valueof employment

generated

Note: In US$, the change in expected value of total annual income in the commandis ~$15,360, while that in income per farmer is $107. But these absolutevalues are less important than the relative values of the change.

Degradedforest incatchment(Current)

Regeneratedcatchmentforest(Simulated)

DIFFERENCEin expectedvalues

KharifRabi/summerTotal for year

KharifRabi/summerTotal for year

Change in totalannual income/employmentChange inannual income /employmentper farmer incommand% change inannual income /employment

20%57%

7%18%

459,761815,229

1,274,990

403,093257,441660,534

-614,456

-4,267

-48%

150,08780,074

230,161

128,92925,287

154,216

-75,945

-527

-33%