A Contingent Valuation Study of Soil Conservation Program in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
A Contingent Valuation Study of Soil Conservation Program in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Ayub Khan* and Ghaffar Ali
ABSTRACT
In the Northern Areas of Pakistan, land degradation caused by soil erosion is a severe problem affecting the livelihood of local people. Agriculture and tourism, the main sources of livelihood of the inhabitants in the area, have been severely hit by this problem. Human activities, such as deforestation, overgrazing and extensive agriculture have made soil resource more vulnerable to rain and flood water. Programs at government and society level are required to control soil erosion. The objectives of this study are to seek the farm household willingness to pay (WTP) for forestation based soil conservation program on communal land in the Northern Area of Pakistan. Open-ended format of CVM is used for the elicitation of respondents’ WTP. For this purpose, a contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to elicit households WTP. A sample of 109 households was randomly selected from 14 randomly selected villages two from each tehsil. The study results revealed that most of the respondents perceived the problem of soil erosion and their willingness to pay for the suggested forestation based soil conservation practices were on average Rs.4666 per year. Regression analysis revealed that slope of the land, family size, income, land size, education, age and perception, were the important factors influencing WTP of the respondents in the study area. These findings suggests that sufficient funds can be generated from local farming community to implement the suggested program, and in this direction the concerned government and non-government organizations can play key role in educating and mobilizing farmers
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