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Browsing Discussion/Working Papers by Author "Senaratne, Athula"
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Item Commons vs. Commons: Managing Scarce Water Resources in Dry Zone Village Tank Systems in Sri Lanka(The Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), 2011-02) Senaratne, Athula; Wickramasinghe, KanchanaThe struggle of village tank farmers in the dry zone of Sri Lanka against rising scarcity of water and land resources strongly highlights the interdependence of local resources under diverse regimes of governance. The significant population in the dry zone that lives under the village tank systems represents one of the most vulnerable community groups in the country. This study attempted to identify technical, institutional, and policy solutions that could provide sustainable answers to the problems faced by the village tank farming community. Physical scarcity is only one aspect of the problem because scarcity is closely influenced by more contentious issues of institutional limitations. The research was conducted in the Anuradhpaura district of the North Central Province in Sri Lanka. The research design included participatory methods of focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII) to gather primary data. Secondary data were collected from various sources, especially from past researches on village tank systems. Findings revealed that temporal scarcity of water and associated problems of managing local resources have been the major challenges that have shaped the evolution of local farming systems and water mana gement strategies. The traditional system evolved to overcome this challenge through the development of a set of social customs and local institutions. These customs and institutions had governed the use of lowland as well as upland resources until recently. However, recent changes such as population growth, government policies, commercialization of local economies, and modernization of agriculture technology have gradually eroded the traditional system. These changes have favored a privately oriented and resource intensive commercial farming system. Such changes have contributed to the collapse of control exerted by traditional system of social customs and local institutions over local resources, especially over the upland component of the farming system. This collapse has led to major environmental problems affecting land and water resources in the village tank systems. Hence, what is needed is a holistic approach of integrated resource management that includes technical, institutional, and policy interventions applied over interdependent systems of local resources. However, the implementation of an integrated mangement practices has to be facilitated by a modified system of local institutional arrangements and appropriate policy interventions designed to create an enabling environment.Item Transaction Costs and Institutional Innovation: Sustainability of Tank Aquaculture in Sri Lanka(South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), 2006) Senaratne, Athula; Karunanayake, KalpaFreshwater community-based aquaculture was introduce to village irrigation tanks in the dry zones of Sri Lanka in order to off-set the limited supply of animal protein available to residents in inland areas. This paper examines transaction costs associated with the management of community-based aquaculture in Anuradhapura district, the most important inland fish production area in the country. Using data from 41 tanks and 340 households, the study finds that community-based aquaculture involves three types of management forms: tank management by farmer organizations, mangaement by sub-group within farmer organizations and out-sourcing of management to third parties. All three institutional arrangements involve transaction costs associated with information provision, collective decision-making, and protection of fish harvest from poachers. While the costs of information provision and collective decision-making are relatively low under all three institutional arrangements, the cost of protection is significant and is considerably reduced when the entire farmer’s association is involved in tank management. In general, while community based fisheries contributes cash flow to farmer organizations and bolsters village food security, the benefits to individual farmers are low. Hence, farmers have little incentive to participate in collective action. Of the three different institutional arrangements, management by farmer sub-groups is the most successful in providing benefits to participants. The study suggests that sustainability of community-based aquaculture depends on successes in experimenting with institutional arrangements that can minimize transaction costs and achieve adequate returns to participants through productivity gains from tanks.