Impacts of Soil Salinity on the Productivity of Al-Musayyeb Small Farms in Iraq: An Examination of Technical, Economic, and Allocative, Efficiency

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1. IntroductionSalinity has emerged as the major factor responsible for low crop production in Iraq (Hatem et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2014a and 2014b). In recent years, various regions have lost significant agricultural productivity due to soil salinity. This situation is particularly critical for the Al-Musayyeb area, which produces an important share of crops for the whole country (Hatem et al., 2012). In the past, the Iraqi economy was heavily dependent on agriculture for employment generation through exports of agricultural goods and agro industries such as the cotton crop for the textile sector. In the last 15 years there has been a phenomenon of increased reliance on women in the agricultural sector. In 2000, women represented more than 50% of all workers in agriculture and were expected to increase to about 60% in 2010 (Telleria et al., 2012).Annual loss of cultivated lands in Iraq is about 5% due to salinization and water logging (FAO, 2003). Of the total land area of Iraq (43 million ha), 8.2 million ha (18.8%) is agricultural area, 4 million ha (9.2%) is arable land, 4 million ha is permanent meadows and pastures, 0.85 million (2%) ha is forest and the rest corresponds to areas not used for agricultural or forest purposes (FAOSTAT, 2014). Of the 3.5 million ha equipped for irrigation (FAOSTAT, 2014), approximately 1.5 million ha is estimated to be moderately salinized, while 0.5 million ha has severe levels of salinity that prevent farming. Due to soil salinity-fallow practices, and the unstable political situation, it is estimated that only 2.8-4.9 million ha is actually cultivated annually.Soil salinity explains up to 50% of lost agricultural productivity in saline-affected areas (Soppe and Saleh, 2012; Dhehibi et al., 2013). Other factors, such as outdated agricultural machinery, poor management practices and lack of fertilizers, certified seeds and pesticides have to a lesser extent negatively affected agricultural productivity growth. From the national context and in historical perspective, there is no doubt that the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Gulf War (1990-1991), the period of United Nations sanctions (1990-2003) and the Iraqi occupation (2003-2011) have meant about 30 years of conflict for the country and undermined efforts to develop the agricultural system in Iraq, including to improve agricultural productivity. These conflicts have particularly weakened the infrastructure and the whole chain and marketing system of agricultural and livestock commodities.It is clear that salt-induced land degradation occurs in both on and off sites and affects the livelihoods inside and outside the farming communities. However, there would be a need for thinking and acting beyond the classical farm level salinity management. It is within this context that this research paper attempt to fill the gaps identified in the analysis of the impact of salinity on livelihoods by determining the extent to which it is possible to raise efficiency for salt-affected farmers with the existing resources base and available technology.Following this Introduction, Section 2 describes the conceptual framework to measure both technical and allocative efficiency using a production and cost function framework plus the model specifications. The study area and data used are outlined in Section 3. Section 4 deals with the presentation and discussion of our empirical results. In the last section, conclusion and policy implications emerging from the results are presented.2. Conceptual Framework: Efficiency and Frontier Production FunctionsEfficiency is a very important factor of productivity growth, especially in developing agricultural economies where resources are scarce and opportunities for developing and adopting better technologies are essential. Two techniques of estimating a firm's relative position to the frontier are used in empirical studies: non-parametric approaches that involve Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and parametric approaches that comprise econometric models (such the Stochastic Frontier Production Function - SFPF) and index numbers. …