Chapter 3 - Factors Affecting Farmer Participation in Irrigation Management
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Farmer Participation and Irrigation Performance: A Case Study of Nam Thach Han irrigation System, Vietnam A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at The University of Waikato by LOI HANH TRAN 2020 Abstract This thesis assesses the determinants of farmer participation in irrigation management and the impact of participation on irrigation quality and agricultural production in the Nam Thach Han irrigation system, Vietnam. Many governments have attempted to increase farmer participation in irrigation system management through participatory irrigation management (PIM). This approach aims to reduce government financial burdens, improve the quality of irrigation management, and in turn, enhance agricultural production. However, the results of PIM have been mixed and the factors affecting its success or failure remain a topic of much debate. Using survey data from 391 households of 11 agricultural cooperatives (ACs) in the Nam Thach Han irrigation system, this study examines (i) the factors that influence farmer participation, (ii) the impact of collective action on irrigation quality (sufficiency and timeliness), and (iii) the impact of irrigation quality on rice farming technical efficiency, while controlling for environmental factors. Four main findings emerge from this thesis. We find that (i) institutional factors at the AC level such as inclusion in the PIM project, information transparency and democratic decision-making have a positive impact on participation, but sharing second-level canals between ACs reduces participation; (ii) higher participation rates are associated with a higher probability of receiving sufficient and timely irrigation; (iii) plots and households receiving sufficient water are more likely to attain higher levels of technical efficiency and; (iv) use of household-level data can provide approximately unbiased estimates of technical efficiency provided environmental factors are controlled for. This thesis provides several contributions to the literature. Participative approaches have been widely adopted in Vietnam but this is the first empirical study to use econometric models to examine the determinants of participation and the effect of collective action on irrigation quality. This is achieved using an improved set of participation indices, constructed using principal component analysis. This thesis also provides the first analysis of the effect of sufficient and timely irrigation on rice farming technical efficiency while controlling for plot- specific environmental factors. ii Acknowledgements I give special thanks to all who in one way or another have supported and encouraged me to pursue and accomplish my PhD program. Without their support and encouragement, I do not know how I would have completed this journey. To mention a few, I want to express the deepest appreciation to the Vietnam Government for providing financial support in the form of Project 911 VIED scholarship. My deepest gratitude goes to my chief supervisor Associate Professor Dan Marsh for invaluable guidance, support and encouragement. He has been generous in his time and put great effort into providing comments and suggestions to help me improve my writing skill. I am also deeply grateful to my second supervisor Doctor Susan Olivia for her constructive suggestions, support and encouragement. I greatly appreciate the advice and assistance from Mr Ho Trong Long, Mr Nguyen Tiep and Mr Le Hoang Phuong. They introduced me to local communities and provided knowledge and data about irrigation and the local context. I owe the success of my fieldwork to them. Finally, I am thankful to my family for their support, encouragement and sacrifices. Special thanks go to my beloved husband Phan Xuan Nghia and my daughter Phan Ngoc Hanh Nguyen for their love and support throughout my study journey. I am also thankful to my sister in-law Phan Nhu Minh who generously helped me to take care of my daughter. My deepest thanks go to my mother Tran Thi Dung for her unconditional love and endless encouragement. iii Table of contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ viii List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background .................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Research problem and justification for this thesis ......................................................... 4 1.3. Objectives and research questions ................................................................................. 7 1.4. Overview of this thesis ................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 - Study site and data collection ............................................................................... 10 2.1. Description of the study site ......................................................................................... 10 2.1.1. Nam Thach Han irrigation system ......................................................................... 10 2.1.2. Some characteristics of Hai Lang and Trieu Phong districts ................................. 16 2.2. Research design and data collection ............................................................................ 18 2.2.1. Research design ..................................................................................................... 18 2.2.2. Questionnaire design .............................................................................................. 20 2.2.3. Pretest and field visit .............................................................................................. 21 2.2.4. Data collection ....................................................................................................... 22 2.2.5. Data processing and sample weights ..................................................................... 22 2.3. Descriptive statistics of sampled households and agricultural cooperatives................ 24 2.3.1. Household endowments ......................................................................................... 24 2.3.2. Household income ................................................................................................. 31 2.3.3. Agricultural cooperatives and their services .......................................................... 32 2.3.4. Summary of descriptive statistics .......................................................................... 34 iv Chapter 3 - Factors affecting farmer participation in irrigation management ......................... 36 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 36 3.2. Literature review .......................................................................................................... 40 3.3. Conceptual framework and research hypotheses ......................................................... 46 3.4. Data and methods ......................................................................................................... 51 3.4.1. Data ........................................................................................................................ 51 3.4.2. Principal component analysis to derive farmer participation indices .................... 51 3.4.3. Regression analysis to determine factors affecting farmer participation ............... 54 3.5. Results and discussion .................................................................................................. 56 3.5.1. Selected descriptive statistics for sampled households .......................................... 56 3.5.2. Frequency of farmer participation in irrigation management activities ................. 58 3.5.3. Participation indices with PCA .............................................................................. 60