Economic & Institutional Analyses of Soil Conservation Projects in Central America & the Caribbean Book

The work presented in this report was motivated by an interest in understanding the extent of soil degradation in Central America and the Caribbean, in knowing how farmers are in general responding to it, and in examining the possibilities that exist to help farmers better respond to the challenges they face. A cost-benefit perspective was used to examine both the extent of the problem and the cost-effectiveness of various proposed solutions. These calculations examine the conditions under which it pays for small farmers to adopt specified soil conservation measures. Moisture conservation as part of soil conservation was recognized as being very important, and increasingly so in dryer areas and/or those with less reliable rainfall patterns. Past and present soil conservation efforts were also examined for any institutional lessons they might contain for the design of future project, institutional, or policy interventions. The country studies undertaken and presented in this volume suggest that the problem, at least in the countries studied, is less severe than sometimes assumed. Furthermore, it is found that cultivation and cropping practices as well as vegetative barriers tend to be superior to mechanical structures that have sometimes been advocated in the past. The results of the case studies show that conservation is profitable in some cases but not in others. Given that farmers generally adopt conservation measures when it is in their interest to do so, unless some constraint prevents them from doing so, the role of government in conservation appears limited to three areas. First, there is considerable room for research efforts, in which government can play a role, aimed atincrementally improving conservation technology. Second, government has a role to ensure that constraints such as insecure tenure do not prevent farmers from adopting conservation measures. Finally, government assistance should be reconsidered since, in the past, it has often been unsuccessful.