Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints
Irrigation expansion is critical to increase crop yields and mitigate effects from climate change in Sub‐Saharan Africa, but the low profitability has led to little irrigation investments in the region so far. Using an integrated modeling framework, we simultaneously evaluate the returns to irrigati...
| Autores principales: | , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Wiley
2018
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/102238 |
| _version_ | 1855519078113869824 |
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| author | Schuenemann, F. Thurlow, James Meyer, S. Robertson, R. Rodrigues, J. |
| author_browse | Meyer, S. Robertson, R. Rodrigues, J. Schuenemann, F. Thurlow, James |
| author_facet | Schuenemann, F. Thurlow, James Meyer, S. Robertson, R. Rodrigues, J. |
| author_sort | Schuenemann, F. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Irrigation expansion is critical to increase crop yields and mitigate effects from climate change in Sub‐Saharan Africa, but the low profitability has led to little irrigation investments in the region so far. Using an integrated modeling framework, we simultaneously evaluate the returns to irrigation arising from both economic and biophysical impact channels to understand what determines the profitability of irrigation in Malawi. Our results confirm that the returns to irrigation cannot cover the costs in Malawi. While labor‐intensive irrigation expansion leads to unfavorable structural change in the short‐run, the profitability hinges on low irrigated yields that fall far from expectations due to insufficient input use and crop management techniques. On the other hand, we find that the nonmonetary benefits of irrigation regarding higher food security, lower poverty, and reduced vulnerability to climate change make investments in irrigation worthwhile to improve the livelihoods of smallholders. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace102238 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publishDateRange | 2018 |
| publishDateSort | 2018 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| publisherStr | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1022382025-12-08T10:11:39Z Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints Schuenemann, F. Thurlow, James Meyer, S. Robertson, R. Rodrigues, J. irrigation computable general equilibrium model food security climate change Irrigation expansion is critical to increase crop yields and mitigate effects from climate change in Sub‐Saharan Africa, but the low profitability has led to little irrigation investments in the region so far. Using an integrated modeling framework, we simultaneously evaluate the returns to irrigation arising from both economic and biophysical impact channels to understand what determines the profitability of irrigation in Malawi. Our results confirm that the returns to irrigation cannot cover the costs in Malawi. While labor‐intensive irrigation expansion leads to unfavorable structural change in the short‐run, the profitability hinges on low irrigated yields that fall far from expectations due to insufficient input use and crop management techniques. On the other hand, we find that the nonmonetary benefits of irrigation regarding higher food security, lower poverty, and reduced vulnerability to climate change make investments in irrigation worthwhile to improve the livelihoods of smallholders. 2018-03 2019-07-22T10:17:36Z 2019-07-22T10:17:36Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/102238 en Limited Access Wiley Schuenemann, F.; Thurlow, J.; Meyer, S.; Robertson, R.; Rodrigues, J. 2018. Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints. Agricultural cconomics. 49(2):237-250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12412 |
| spellingShingle | irrigation computable general equilibrium model food security climate change Schuenemann, F. Thurlow, James Meyer, S. Robertson, R. Rodrigues, J. Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title | Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title_full | Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title_short | Evaluating irrigation investments in Malawi: economy‐wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| title_sort | evaluating irrigation investments in malawi economy wide impacts under uncertainty and labor constraints |
| topic | irrigation computable general equilibrium model food security climate change |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/102238 |
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