Volume 38, Issue 1 Factors affecting Willingness to Accept compensation for crops conversion programs: a farm level study in Tunisia Lamia Soltani Higher School of Digital Economy, Manouba university, Tunisia Aymen Frija Mohamed salah Matoussi Social Economics and policy Research program Professor in the faculty of Economics Sciences and Management of Tunis Abstract Offering a case study of Northeast of Tunisia, this study identifies socio-economic factors that affect the willingness to accept compensation for the conversion of their current cropping patterns towards more water-saving ones.A survey questionnaire was used for collecting data. A logistic regression model was used to analyze the data.Results showed that a majority of the farmers self-identified as having accepted a compensation for crops conversion program. Empirical results of the logistic regression model showed that eight factors surveyed, age, farm size, cereal area, parcel number, cattle fattening activity, groundwater salinity, owned area, and rental area were significantly related to a willingness to accept compensation for crops conversion programs. The authors are grateful to the participant farmers from the study area for their kind assistance regarding data collection of this study.The paper is based on the first author's graduate thesis at Faculty of Economics sciences and Management Tunisia. Citation: Lamia Soltani and Aymen Frija and Mohamed salah Matoussi, (2018) ''Factors affecting Willingness to Accept compensation for crops conversion programs: a farm level study in Tunisia'', Economics Bulletin, Volume 38, Issue 1, pages 383-392 Contact: Lamia Soltani - [email protected], Aymen Frija - [email protected], Mohamed salah Matoussi - [email protected]. Submitted: December 20, 2017. Published: February 27, 2018. 1.Introduction Globally, the agricultural sector is the largest user of groundwater resources (GWP, 2012). In arid and semi-arid regions, where rainfall is scarce, groundwater has become a primary source of irrigation; it is mostly used as a supplementary source of irrigation. In Tunisia, around 43 percent of this resource is being used for irrigation purposes (MARH, 2007). Since the early 70s, the development of irrigated agriculture in this country has generated significant increases in food production and farm income. However, it has also led to intensive exploitation of water resources which is especially manifested by the overexploitation of groundwater and the degradation of its chemical quality. Around 26 percent of groundwater aquifers in Tunisia are overexploited at an average rate of 146 percent, most of them are at serious risk of salinization due to their coastal location ( TICET, 2009). The case of the Cap Bon (Nabeul Governorate, northeast of Tunisia) is a good illustration of this overexploitation problem.Some aquifers have been overexploited and their water resources have been contaminated by seawater intrusion as it is the case of Grombalia, El Haouaria, and Korba aquifers (all located in the Cap Bon region). The expansion of irrigated areas during the last two decades in this region has led to increased irrigation water requirements (Around 60% of total arable areas in the region are currently irrigated). Meanwhile, surface water resources have not been further developed and pressure on groundwater has been increasing significantly. Therefore, a potential water imbalance is triggered since the agricultural, urban, and touristic sectors of the region are in strong competition especially during the summer. In many irrigated areas of Cap Bon, farmers are suffering from quantity as well as quality water scarcity. Korba aquifer, the object of our study, is located in the Eastern part of the Cap Bon governorate. It constitutes the main source of irrigation in the region. However, since the early 90s, the level of the water table has experienced a decline as well as a degradation of its quality due to intensive widespread irrigation. Intensive pumping of groundwater from Korba aquifer reduces the freshwater outflow to the sea and creates several drawdown cones and lowering of the water table up to 12 m below sea level. This is especially relevant for the irrigated areas of Diar El Hajjej and Tafelloun villages, where saline intrusion in wells is a significant phenomenon (Kouzanaet al, 2009, Zghibiet al, 2013). The most contaminated wells are located mainly between Diarr El Hajjej, MenzelHorr, Taffelloun and Lebna villages. Currently, the salinity of groundwater varies between 5 and 8 g/l (Groupement de Developpement Agricole de Diar El Hajjej (2010)).The Regional Council on Agriculture Development of Nabeul(“CommisariatRégional de Développement Agricole”(CRDA), 2009) reports having deserted several wells, while some other wells are still being exploited even though their salinity exceeds 3g/l.Korba aquifer can actually be considered as the most overexploited aquifer of the governorate.Taking into consideration the problem of overexploitation of Korba aquifer and the consequences resulting from it, the public water agency proposed since 1992 to increase the surface water in the region through a further transfer of water from the northern part of the country via Medjerda-Cap-Bon canal. This project was implemented in 1998. In the same period, artificial recharging programs of this aquifer from treated sewage water and surface water were also implemented to better preserve groundwater.This operation consists in injecting water into the wells of the farmers. However, the recharge of the Aquifer was insignificant compared to the excess of groundwater pumping (Zghibi et al, 2013). In addition, the government encouraged farmers to adopt a more efficient type of irrigation technologies, such as drip irrigation, for which specific subsidies programs have been designed (60 percent of total cost of technology). Likewise, this policy didn’t have 1 a significant effect on reducing pressure on groundwater (Bachta and Elloumi, 2005, Frija, 2009; Frija et al, 2015; Al Atiri, 2004). On the contrary, subsidies of irrigation technologies induced the planting of more water-intensive crops on already irrigated land as strawberries (Kerrou, 2008). This result was confirmed by Pefeifer et al, 2009; 2014. In the farming systems of the region, and despite the water shortage context described above, farmers are still cultivating high water consuming crops such as tomatoes (6000 cubic meter per hectare), strawberries (6000 cubic meter per hectare), peppers (7000 cubic meter per hectare), and potatoes (4500 cubic meter per hectare). Based on this observation, our aim was to investigate farmers’ preferences to change water-intensive crops by less intensive ones with compensatory payments. This instrument was also proposed by Wang et al, (2015).This program includes payments to irrigators against changing their current cropping allocation plans by cultivating low water-intensive crops on their current irrigated areas. Such programs usually operate on an offer-based contract between the irrigator and the coordinating government agency. Our study is conducted in the considered Cap Bon area based on a survey of a representative sample composed of 81 farmers of the irrigated scheme of Diar El Hajjej. Farmers’ responses to crops conversion programs are influenced by their socio-economic characteristics. We then applied a logit model to identify factors influencing farmers’ decisions. This paper focuses on identifying socio-economic factors likely to be influential in willingness to accept compensation for crops conversion programs. 2.Study area The study area is located in the delegation of Korba (governorate of Nabeul in Northeast of Tunisia). It is the irrigated area of Diar El Hajjej. It covers 800 hectares. It is distributed as follows: 35,66% tomatoes, 17,11% strawberries, 14,26% pepper, 11,41% potato, 10% cereals, 5% fodder, and 5,7% other crops. In this area, the irrigators are cultivating the high water- consuming crops. The perimeters of Diar El Hajjej are currently irrigated by two water sources:60 percent of water resources come from wells and 40 percent come from the Medjerda-Cap-Bon canal.Irrigators use a more efficient type of irrigation technologies, such as drip irrigation, for which specific subsidy programs have been designed (60 percent of total technology costs). The increasing demand for water in agriculture has led to an excess in pumping groundwater; representing the main buffer against irrigation water scarcity in the region. Intensive pumping of groundwater from the Korba aquifer reduces the freshwater outflow to the sea and creates several drawdown cones and lowers water table up to 12 m below sea level (Kouzanaet al, 2009, Zghibiet al, 2013). Several wells are contaminated by saline intrusion. Currently, groundwater salinity varies between 3 and 8 g/l (Groupement de Developpement Agricole de Diar El Hajjej (2010)). The Regional Council on Agriculture Development of Nabeul(“Commisariat Régional de Développement Agricole”(2009)) reports having deserted several wells, while some other wells are still being exploited even though their salinity exceeds 3g/l. Farmers are suffering from quantity as well as quality water scarcity. 2 Within this framework, we practically proposed to farmers during our data collection to reduce their solanaceous or strawberries irrigated areas and changing them with other low water–consuming crops, while receiving a compensation. Four hypothetical compensation values were proposed. These values were expressed