Economics of trees, fodder shrubs and cropping on salt affected lands of the irrigated farms of Pakistan

Amir Khosrow Abadi Ghadim

Agricultural and Resource Economics, The University of W.A., Nedlands, 6907

Introduction

This paper reports on the results of an economic analysis of the role of Saltbush (Atriplex amnicola) and Eucalyptus camaldulensis versus the traditional cropping practices in revegetation of salt affected lands in the irrigated farming systems of Pakistan. This study was a component of the ACIAR (Australian Center for International Agricultural Research) project 9302. The project, entitled "Forage shrub production from saline and/or sodic soils in Pakistan", focused on addressing the deficiency of fodder production in Pakistan. Forage shrubs such as saltbush grown on the salt-affected land were seen as an opportunity to overcome this deficit.

The national level

In Pakistan, about 15 million acres of land are salt affected. Out of this, close to 7 million acres are in the irrigated areas. Severe salinity and waterlogging have resulted in abandonment of about 5 million acres of this area. (Qureshi et al. 1993 and M. Aslam Pers Com.) (Table 1). The issue of salinity and its management is further complicated by soil type and its water table as well as by the level of soil salinity (Table 1). It has been calculated that salinity in Punjab and the North West Frontier Province causes an annual economic loss of 4.3 billion rupees (about US$300 million) (Ghassemi et. al., 1995).

Table 1. National extent of salinity on different soil types and water tables in Pakistan. Values in the table show proportion of salt affected land under each category. (M. Aslam Pers. Com.)

Source Dr M. Aslam, Faisalabad Uni, Pakistan 1996

The farm level

A survey of farmers in the Punjab province (Sharif, et. al. 1989) showed that on a typical small farm (under 12.5 acres) with mixed enterprises around 6 acres is saline and about 3 acres is subject to some waterlogging. A 1995 survey of the farmers in Punjab showed that 60% of the 350 farmers interviewed ranked salinity as the second most important constraint to their agricultural production after irrigation water shortage (K. Edjaz. Pers. Com.).

Apart from engineering solutions to combat waterlogging and salinsation, research efforts have been directed to revegetation of these soils with salt tolerant species of plants. Saltbush has attracted considerable research attention for its possibility as a fodder shrub to provide livestock feed during winter (Ghassemi, et. al. 1995).

Previous economic analyses

There have been only a few studies on the economics of saltland agronomy that may be considered relevant to this project. Much of the work in this field has been done in Australia (Bathgate, et. al. 1992 and Salerian et. al., 1987). The Australian studies examined the role of utilisation of Atriplex spp. as livestock fodder under paddock grazing conditions on mixed enterprise dryland farming systems. The farms are large (1500 to 3000 ha) by world standards. These studies have concluded that Atriplex has only a small effect on the farm plan and profit and its value is highly dependent on its nutritional value and commodity prices of the products of the livestock industry. Most of these studies and nutritional studies conducted by Atiqe (1995) indicate that the main benefit of Atriplex spp in the Australian farming systems’ context is as a fodder shrub strategically grazed when there is a shortage of alternatives to partially replace costly grain supplements.

In 1994, Mark Stevens, an economist from Agriculture Western Australia, visited Pakistan in association with ACIAR and developed a spreadsheet model of the irrigated farming systems. He analysed the role of saltbush in revegetating the salt affected soils. His results indicated that given the scarcity of non saline irrigation water, the value of saltbush lies in its ability to utilise saline irrigation water to produce fodder on saline land which has little opportunity cost (Stevens, 1994). He argued that the role of saltbush would most likely be as a replacement for a proportion of the animals’ diet rather than as a complete substitute for green fodder. In this study it was assumed that Saltbush has similar nutritional qualities to a green fodder crop such as berseem. Under these assumptions, inclusion of saltbush in the farm plan improved farm profitability by around 17%. Recent nutritional studies in Australia reviewed by Barrett-Lennard and Malcolm (1995) have questioned the nutritional value of saltbush as grazing fodder. A sensitivity analysis of the economic value of saltbush showed that its contribution to farm profitability decline to negligible levels when its nutritional value was assumed to be half that of berseem (Stevens, 1994).

Atiqe (1995) suggested that the economic benefits of saltbush as source of livestock feed might be higher in countries where a cut and carry system is common. In cut and carry systems costly feed ingredients with high energy or nitrogen content, such as cottonseed meal, are generally mixed with low quality roughage like cereal straw to meet maintenance requirements of animals. Results of nutritional studies by Atiqe (1995) showed that a ration consisting of 25% saltbush leaves and 75% wheat straw can improve the dry matter intake of sheep when compared to a ration of 100% wheat straw. His results also indicate that the animals can be maintained on almost zero nitrogen balance on such a diet as compared to negative nitrogen balance on pure wheat straw diet. Atiqe (1995) suggested that in countries like Pakistan where labour is cheap and low quality roughage are an important source of animal feed, especially in the feed gap period (May to June and November to January), saltbush can partially replace expensive nitrogen supplements such as cotton seed meal.

Subsequent reviews of the ACIAR project 9302 and other related projects have highlighted the need for evaluating the complementary role of grasses, shrubs, trees and crops in developing economic option for rehabilitating saline land. Research indicates that in addition to Atriplex spp., Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Kallar grass (Leptochloa fusca) and salt tolerant crop species such as the SARCI wheat cultivars increase the agronomic potential of saline soils. Eucalyptus is being considered for its potential as a source of wood whilst Kallar grass appears to be a promising summer fodder on the soils that are both waterlogged and saline (Ghassemi, et al. 1995).

Objectives and hypothesis

The objectives of this study was to build on the study by Stevens (1994) and carry out a comparative economic analysis of the role of eucalyptus trees, saltbush and crops on salt affected soils in irrigated farming systems of Pakistan. The hypothesis was that saltbush and E. camaldulensis trees will both have a niche for some farmers in Pakistan and that the profitability of cropping, trees and forage shrubs on salt affected farms will depend on the soil structure, degree of salinity in the soil and the irrigation water.

Outline

The following section of this report describes the method of data collection, building of a suitable model and economic analysis that followed. Results of the analysis are discussed in the context of socio-economic constraints faced by farmers affected by salinity. Finally a set of recommendations are provided for the direction of future research and development in this field.

Methodology

This study is a farm level economic analysis of some agronomic solutions for salt affected farmers. It evaluated the various proposed agronomic innovations from a partial budget benefit/cost analysis perspective on a typical small Punjab farm of around 5 acres. Caution should be exercised in extrapolating these results to other farming systems and in aggregating the net benefits to the provincial or national scale.

Field visits

After consultations with Australian collaborators of this project and reviewing the relevant literature a 15 day visit was made to Pakistan to collect the necessary agronomical and economic data. The trip started with a visit to Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province where discussions were held with farmers and researchers at the University of Peshawar. Several field trips were made to villages in the NWFP to see the trial sites and hold talks with farmers affected by salinity. The next phase of the trip was a visit to Islamabad where contact was made with the national leaders of the project to help see the issues from a national perspective.

The final and the longest phase of this trip was spent at and around Faisalabad in the Punjab province. Consultations with the researchers in the University of Faisalabad provided more data required to carry out this study. The collaborators at this university arranged for several field trips to their trial sites and organised discussions with several farmers where farming systems issues regarding agronomic solutions for saline soils could be discussed in detail. Overall the trip was an invaluable way of gaining knowledge of the farming systems affected by salinity and an effective means of understanding of the prospective of the farmers as well as the research staff in various disciplines.

Decision aid - Model

A partial budget benefit-cost analysis model was developed on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet version 5. The model describes a typical small farm in Punjab. It is designed as a decision aid for the analytical needs of agricultural professional who may not necessarily be economists. It has a simple tabular end-user interface where key assumptions about some salt land resources and agronomy may be changed. The user can change these assumptions and observe its effect on the relative profitability of various rehabilitation options.

The analysis compares the financial ramifications of rehabilitating the salt affected land but not the whole farm. Time and resources did not permit building a comprehensive whole farm model of the farming system. More detailed information would be required to design an integrated optimisation model. The viability and usefulness of such a model requires further consultation. A disk copy of the decision aid is available from Amir Abadi or Dr Ed Barrett-Lennard on request.

Model inputs

The model is made up several interconnected sections or modules where the assumptions or inputs are stored. A list of its main input features are as follows:

1. Description of soil types relating to soil texture and soil water depth;
2. Pakistan’s national extent of soil salinity and irrigation water salinity;
3. Relative agronomic performance of plants as a function of soil structure, water table and soil/water salinity (Tables 2 and 3);
4. The composition of the livestock enterprise;
5. Feed requirements of the farm animals in the feed gap expressed in digestible crude protein and digestible dry matter;
6. Nutritional value of a traditional feeds versus saltbush (Table 4);
7. Analysis of nutritional value of a feed gap ration with and without saltbush (Table 5);
8. Establishment and maintenance costs of saltbush and eucalyptus trees planted at three different densities. The costs include site preparation, irrigation, labour and harvesting costs.
9. Income received from the sale of wood and feed value of saltbush and eucalyptus at different densities.
10. Gross margin of various crop and fodder species.

Table 2. The relative yield of some plant species in response to soil structure and water table when grown with non-saline water on a soil with salinity level of 11-20 dsm^-1 when compared to the same plants grown on non-saline land of similar type. (M. Aslam and S.Nawaz Pers. Com.)

Table .3. The relative yield of various plant species in response to irrigation water salinity when grown on different soil types (M. Aslam and S.Nawaz Pers. Com.).

Table 4. Nutritional quality of various feeds used on small Pakistan farms (R. Vikar Pers. Com. and Bashir et. al. 1993).

Note that although saltbush has 22% CP only 50% is available and other 50% is in the form of Non Protein Nitrogen (NPN). According to R. Vikar (Pers. Com.) the NPN can also be digested if some readily available energy source such as molasses is provided.

Table 5. Nutritional analysis of two alternative daily rations for maintenance of an animal unit during the feed gap (R. Vikar, Pers. Com. and Bashir et. al. 1993).

Key: DM is Dry Matter

The model has been designed to make future additions of any new options as easy as possible. For instance in its present form the section of the model dealing with conventional crops has only got wheat and cane sugar as an option. But in future other crop and fodder options can be incorporated.

Model Outputs

The output of the model is in the same screen where key assumptions can be changed. The user keys in the assumptions about soil type, salinity level and quality of irrigation water and the results are displayed in a table of comparison between the net present value of conventional crops versus that of the trees and fodder shrubs. The benefit cost analysis is for a period of 5 or 8 years reflecting the length of investment cycle required for saltbush and trees.

The results are presented in two tables. The first table shows the amount of land that needs to be planted to saltbush to replace the supplementary feed requirement of the livestock enterprise of the farm during the feed gap. In this table the profitability of saltbush is compared to that of trees and conventional crop rotation like wheat and cane sugar on the same area of land. The second table shows a comparison of the profitability of crop rotation with trees and saltbush on one acre of land.

Results and Discussion

The results of this study confirms the hypothesis that there is a role for saltbush and eucalyptus trees on the salt affected irrigated farming systems of Pakistan. However the results also suggest that under the current set of assumptions trees and saltbush will at best result in only a modest increase in farm profit. Depending on soil structure, soil salinity and irrigation water quality, saltbush and eucalyptus trees are more economical than conventional cropping or abandonment. Soil and water characteristics determine which of the options of cropping, trees or saltbush is likely to be more profitable.

However the profitability of trees and saltbush on highly saline land is small when compared to cropping on non saline land with irrigation water of low salinity. Cropping on a porous low salinity soil with slightly saline irrigation water is around 10-15 times more profitable than trees or saltbush on a highly saline soil of similar area over the same period of time (Table 6). This result clearly demonstrates that rehabilitating highly salt affected land may be slightly better than leaving it idle but it is unlikely that such measures can generate incomes similar to those on the non saline soils.

The values in Table 6 are expressed in terms of net present values of each option over the specified period discounted at 12%. The values are in Pakistan Rupees and include both cost and income stream of each option over time. The profitability of cropping is presented for 5 and 8 year periods in order to provide a valid comparison against investment in saltbush with life span on 5 years and trees with a life span of over 8 years. The results reflect directly the assumptions regarding the agronomic performance of each plant species under various soil/water salinity levels grown on soils of various structure and soil water depth specified in the model.

The density, expressed as plant to plant and row to row spacing, of trees and saltbush has a influence on their profitability as it affects the yield per acre. Therefore planting trees at 3mx3m will result in an overall loss, but planted at 2mx2m it will result in net profit of a 5.3 thousand rupees where soil/water salinity is low and 1.3 thousand rupees at medium to high soil/water salinity levels. Another interesting feature of these findings is that where soil/water salinity is low, saltbush is less economical than eucalyptus and vice versa.

Table 6. A comparison of profitability (net present value in rupees ,000) of various agronomic options for rehabilitating an acre of salt affected land at two levels of soil/water salinity where the soil structure is porous and water table is deep (non-waterlogged).

Density refers to distance between plants and between rows.

Table 7 shows the economics of rehabilitating an area of salt affected land (11-20 dsm^-1) with saltbush irrigated with highly saline water to generate enough feed to substitute for the supplementary feed requirements of the livestock enterprise. This feed is required during the May-June and November-January feed gap period. The amount of land required to be sown to saltbush in order to generate this feed varies for different planting densities. At low density of 4mx4m an area of salt affected land equal to 6.2 acres needs to be sown to saltbush to generate enough fodder to fill the feed gap. At higher density plantings of say 2mx2m only 1.5 5 acres of salt affected land is required to generate the necessary fodder for the same purpose.

The results show that under the salt/water salinity scenario shown in Table 7 growing the saltbush in dense spacing to minimise the establishment costs will generate adequate feed from a 1.55 acres of land to result in a net positive profit of 5.6 thousand rupees. On the other hand if similar amount of feed was to be generated from a larger areas due to wider spaced plantings then the net result will be a loss to the farmer largely due to establishment costs.

Table 7. Relative profitability of various agronomic options for salt affected land on an area of land required for saltbush to fill the feed gap at various densities. In this scenario the soil is porous with salinity level of 11-20 dsm^-1. Water table is deep -no waterlogging. The irrigation water is highly saline.

Although the results confirm the hypothesis that saltbush does have an economic role to play on Pakistani farms, they also show that this role does not involve saltbush on all the salt affected land. The most economical use of saltbush is in using it to revegetate 20% of the 7.4 acres of salt affected land on an average farm as reported by Sharif et. al. (1989).

Table 7 also shows the profitability of cropping and trees on the same area of land that is required for saltbush to substitute for supplementary feed at various planting densities. For instance cropping is highly unprofitable where the soil/water salinity is as high as specified in this scenario. Of course the losses associated with cropping soil of such quality will increase with the size of the area under crop and the length of cropping period.

Interestingly, Table 7 shows that although net profit from a eucalyptus plantation on 1.55 acres of saline land is not as high as the profitability of saltbush, trees continue to be profitable and overtake the saltbush in profitability on larger plantations. This is due to the structural assumptions of the analysis which implies that once the nutritional requirements of the livestock enterprise has been met with a certain amount of saltbush any further increase in the size of saltbush plantation will have no further benefits.

For the sake of brevity a summary table of results has been created as shown in Table 8 where the most profitable option is indicated for each soil type and soil/water salinity level. The results show that saltbush is economical when established on a porous soil with salinity levels of 4-40 dsm^-1. The advantage of saltbush is shown in its ability to grow in highly saline soil/water environment. Where this soil type is less saline and especially where irrigation water is only slightly saline it is more economical to continue cropping. Because, even though under such saline conditions, crop yields are reduced drastically, saltbush can still not match the profitability of cropping. Due to lack of long term data it is unclear how cropping could be sustained in this situation without exacerbating salinity.

Under extremely saline soil/water conditions there does not exist an economical option for this soil and it is probably best left abandoned until better options present themselves in the future. This confirms the rational behaviour of abandonment by farmers who have highly saline soils and irrigation water is also very saline (Table 8).

On the dense structured soils, trees are clearly more economical than cropping or saltbush. However under the assumptions of this study there still exists no economically viable option for dense structured soils that suffer from salinity levels higher than 20 dsm^-1 (Table 8). Under those conditions the cost of any rehabilitation option will not be offset by future returns. It appears for those soils the best option is to do nothing unless there are other benefits such as aesthetics which a farmer may regard as a valid and rational benefit not accounted for in this analysis.

For the porous soils where the water table is shallow causing permanent or occasional waterlogging eucalyptus tree plantations are found to be more economical than cropping or saltbush. At very low soil salinity levels cropping is still a better option than trees on this soil type even though some crop yield is lost due to salinity of the irrigation water. Doing nothing also presents itself as the best option on this soil where salinity level is above 20 dsm^-1 , unless low salinity irrigation water is available (Table 8).

The case of dense soils with shallow water table has deliberately not been examined in this study due to negligible area of this soils type reportedly affected by salinity as shown in Table1.

Table 8. The most economical options for soils of varying structure, water table and soil/water salinity.

Sensitivity analysis

In a study such as this where the economic evaluation of the system requires some major assumptions about biological and non biological parameters that are either hard to find or not collected, it is useful to carryout some tests to see how sensitive the findings are to the assumptions made. Of course one could perform sensitivity analysis of a whole suite of assumptions and generate more data. However for the sake of the reader and the analyst it is only useful to find how sensitive the findings are to the key parameters of the analysis.

Nutritional quality of saltbush

Given that the economic viability of saltbush is driven by its value as a source of stock feed, it is important that a sensitivity analysis of the nutritional quality of saltbush be carried out. Further more since the nutritional aspect of saltbush is still under biological experimentation both in Pakistan and Australia, results of such an analysis could shed some light on a desirable direction of the biological research.

Table 9. Profitability of an acre of saltbush (Rupees ,000) at various nutritional value assumptions on a porous soil irrigated with highly saline water. Profitability values are net present values over a 5 year period. Saltbush planting densities are 2mx2m.

Table 9 shows the results of a sensitivity analysis where the assumption of the crude protein content of saltbush was varied down to 3%. The reduction in nutritional quality meant that cotton seed cake was required adjust the crude protein content of the ration to required maintenance level. This increases the cost of the ration and reduces the value of saltbush as fodder for the feed gap.

The results show that the economic viability of saltbush is very sensitive to its nutritional quality. Depending on the severity of soil salinity changing the assumption of crude protein content of saltbush from 11% to 3% reduces its viability by as much as 6 thousand rupees.

The results of biological studies on nutritional value of saltbush in Pakistan is not conclusive. Much more research is planned in this field. The results of this study have significant ramifications for the direction of future research in this field. These results show that the success of saltbush, in terms of its adoption by Pakistan farmers, will depend heavily on its nutritional value. Therefore it is recommended that priority be given to assessing the nutritional value of saltbush under conditions similar to that of the farmers before much more work is carried on its agronomy. If it is discovered that saltbush has 11% digestible crude protein then it may also be useful as a substitute for green fodder at other times of the year. This will in turn allow the farmer to reduce the area of irrigated fodder crops and use the precious canal and good quality tube well water for growing cash crops.

Discount rate

In agricultural investments it is important to know whether the adoption of an innovation such as saltbush will earn a return in the future. When establishing a plantation of saltbush or eucalyptus there is a time gap between the costs incurred in establishment and maintenance and income generated later. In the case of eucalyptus this time gap is around 8 years. The forgone discussion of economic feasibility of saltbush and eucalyptus revolved around an analysis that discounted all costs and benefits for the projected duration of the activity. Discounting costs and benefits permits the determination of the value today of an amount of money received sometimes in the future which is usually the end of the project. Present values can then be readily compared, letting the adopter (investor) identify the best use of the available resource or capital (Amir and Knipscheer, 1989).

An important consideration in any discounting exercise is to select an appropriate interest rate by which the costs and benefits should be discounted. In the analysis reported above an interest rate of 12% was used. There is however some debate about the validity of this number. Phillip Simmons, from the University of New England, Australia (Pers. Com.), argues that peasant farmers of Pakistan are so cash strapped, due mainly to a variety of reasons including access to credit, that they have a very high opportunity cost for money. Therefore he suggests that any economic analysis of viability of an innovation such as saltbush should use discount rate as high as 70%.

There probably are not many economists who would support arguments for discount rates as high as that. However, it is valid to question how sensitive the findings are to changes in discount rates. To answer this question the analysis was repeated using incremental increases in discount rate.

The results show that regardless of discount rate cropping is never a viable option under the scenarios described in Table 10 since its gross margin is negative due to low yields. At a discount rate of zero eucalyptus is the best option since no opportunity cost is imposed for the investment period of 8 years. However, at 6% discount rate eucalyptus and saltbush are equal in their profitability and either is a better option than cropping. This is due to the fact that saltbush project generates income from the first year onwards while the farmer has to wait 8 years for eucalyptus to generate a positive cash flow.

The higher the discount rate the less viable projects like eucalyptus become due to drastic reduction of the value of future earnings. At 12% saltbush is better option than trees but its profitability is reduced compared to results using lower discount rates. An important aspect of this analysis is that although higher discount rates reduce the size of the net present value of saltbush they never make it non-viable. This contradicts the perception that farmers with high opportunity cost for money will be unlikely to invest in saltbush. The results show that saltbush is rather robust as a viable agronomic option for rehabilitating some salt affected land.

However it is acknowledged that a Pakistani farmer with institutional difficulties in accessing finance (Keshwar Ejaz, Pers Com.) will have great difficulty in funding the establishment of a saltbush plantation in one attempt. In practice farmers may overcome this by staggered or sequential adoption, establishing small areas of saltbush as they can afford to.

Table 10. The effect of discount rate on the profitability of various agronomic option (Rs ,000) on the salt affected land over the specified period. In this scenario it was assumed that the soil type is porous. Soil salinity level is 11-20 dsm^-1 , depth of soil water table is deep and the irrigation water is highly saline. Eucalyptus density is 2mx2m and saltbush density is 2mx2m.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The key conclusions and recommendations of this study are as follows:

1. Saltbush is the most economical option where soil and water salinity is high and soil texture is porous. However the viability of saltbush depends on its nutritional value for livestock in a cut and carry system. This requires further research.
2. In the irrigated farming systems of Punjab and NWFP, water is more scarce than land. Where non-saline irrigation water is available cropping is a more economical option on the salt affected land than trees or saltbush unless the soil is highly saline.
3. Eucalyptus trees are more economical than saltbush or cropping where soil and irrigation water are both only slightly to moderately saline, especially if the soil has a dense structure with water table close to the surface.
4. Adoption of trees is more likely to be adversely affected by lack of credit and farmers preference for more immediate income than adoption of saltbush. It is recommended that resources be put into: (a) improving small farmers’ access to credit; (b) improving extension services to facilitate diffusion information by providing more resources to extension staff. Initiatives such as Water Users Association are highly relevant.
5. Continue research efforts into salt tolerant crop species for slight to moderately saline soils.
6. Continue evaluating other tree species such as Prosopis julifora which easily volunteer and adapt to growing on the saline abandoned land. At the time of this study not enough information was available to evaluate this species.
7. Evaluate agronomic and economical potential of Kallar grass for the dense waterlogged soils where tube well water is abundant and inexpensive. Again there was not enough information available to include Kallar grass in this analysis.
8. Involve the economists and social scientists from the beginning of future projects. This will allow them to help identify the role of innovations in the farming systems and the key constraints to their adoption. Use the information to help set research priorities. This can be achieved by setting in place formal multidisciplinary team meetings for setting research direction.
9. Use the input section of the model built for this study as a guide to collecting biological data that are likely to be the key factors in economic viability of innovations under investigation. In addition the data in the input section of the model needs to be verified and continually updated. Using guesses to estimates certain data that is not yet been collected is fine as long as a sensitivity analysis is carried out to see how important it is to know the value of that parameter.
10. There some major implications of this study on the direction of future animal nutrition research direction. Given the diversity of the livestock enterprise on small Pakistani farms it is important that the performance of each species of livestock is evaluated with and without saltbush in the rations that resemble those fed by farmers. It is also important that animal performance data be collected on dry body weight measurements, as well as on production of milk and progeny. The interaction between saltbush and body water content can lead to misleading information and conclusions (Barrett-Lennard and Malcolm, 1995).
11. A simplifying assumption and limitation of this analysis was that the farmers will re-investment in trees every 8 years and in saltbush every 5 years. In reality ground preparation and irrigation is less likely to be necessary after the initial set up. Saltbush will self re-seed and trees will regenerate after the first harvest. This mans that the costs were probably over estimated and therefore it would be better to do the analysis over a longer period of 15-30 years. More data is required for further analysis of this issue.
12. The model developed for this analysis was not designed to optimise for objectives such as profit. The amount of saltbush selected was to meet current livestock needs during the feed gap and any more was simply considered a cost. A whole-farm approach would include the interactions between enterprises and competition for resources such as water, finance and labour. Future studies should consider developing an optimising model to help assess whether increasing the area of saltbush or trees would increase the size of the livestock enterprise. This would tell us what its implications would be for the future of the cropping enterprise and efficient use of canal and good quality tube well irrigation water. The development of this model would depend on the amount of time allocated for the task and intellectual and financial resources devoted to this task. It is a time consuming task that requires a great deal of data from all disciplines. The availability of skill modellers for development and maintenance of such a model is also an issue that requires consideration. Until these issues are resolved and adequate time and resources are allocated to the task of building a whole-farm optimising model, smaller spreadsheet models may be more practical. These smaller models such as the one used for this study would be designed to perform partial benefit/cost analysis of a particular aspect of farm such as salinity may be more practical.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the kind hospitality and valuable discussions offered by Drs Rashid, Qureshi, Aslam, Nawaz, Ejaz, Jamal and their research staff in particular Parviz, Aroon and Riaz Vikar. I am particularly indebted to Dr Gill for his generous hospitality during my stay in Faisalabad. Many thanks also to Dr Ed Barrett Lennard and Richard Galloway for helpful advice and assistance.

References

Amir, P. and Knipscheer, H. (1989). Conducting On-farm Animal Research. Einrock International Institute for Agricultural Development. USA.

Atiqe-ur-Rehman. (1995). The potential for the use of saltbush (Atriplex spp.) in sheep grazing systems during summer and autumn in a mediterranean environment. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of Western Australia.

Barrett-Lennard, E.G. and Malcolm, C.V. (1995). Saltland Pastures in Australia- A Practical Guide. Bulletin 4312, Department of Agriculture Western Australia. Perth, pp. 112.

Bashir, A., Hussain, Z. and Longmire, J. (1993). Farm Management Handbook. University of Faisalabad.

Bathgate, A.D., Young, J. and Barrett Lennard, E. (1992). Economics of revegetating saltland for grazing. In ‘Proceedings of National Workshop on Productive Use of Saline Land’ (ed. T.N. Hermann). South Australian Department of Agriculture.

Ghassemi, F., Jakeman, A.J. and Nix, H.A. (1995). Salinisation of Land and Water Resources. University of New South Wales Press. Sydney.

Qureshi, R.H., Aslam, M. and Rafiq, M. (1993). Expansion in the use of forage halophytes in Pakistan. In ‘Productive Use of Saline Land’ (Eds. Davidson, N. and Galloway, R.). AVIAR Proceedings 42, 12-12. Australian Center for International Agricultural Research.

Salerian, J.S., Malcolm, C. and Pol, E. (1987). The economics of saltland agronomy. Technical Report 56, Division of Resource Management, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Perth, pp. 35.

Sharif, M., Shafig, M., Azeem, M., Jameel Khan, M. and Bashir. A. (1989). Agronomic -technological constraints facing small farmers in Pakistan’s Punjab. In ‘Proceedings of the National Seminar on Economic Revival of Small Farms’ (ed Bashir, A., Bashir Kausar, M., Mohy-ud-Din, Q. and Asghar Cheema, M.). University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Pages 161-175.

Stevens, M. (1994). An economic assessment of the potential for saltbush in the irrigated farming systems of Pakistan. ACIAR project 9302 report. Australian Center for International Agricultural Research.

Citation: Abadi Ghadim, A.K. (1999). Economics of trees, fodder shrubs and cropping on salt affected lands of the irrigated farms of Pakistan, unpublished report to the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research. http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/seaos4.htm

Contact: aabadi@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

SEA News issue #4

The SEA News index is at http://welcome.to/seanews

Copyright © Amir K. Abadi Ghadim 1999
Last revised: May 21, 2003.