The Limits to Common Resource Management: The Bypassed Commons or Commons without Tragedy

Kebede, Yohannes (1993): The Limits to Common Resource Management: The Bypassed Commons or Commons without Tragedy.

Abstract

Land, labor, indigenous knowledge and institutional resources of producers in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia are investigated. Frequency distribution and comparative statistical analysis of the two regions with respect to these and other parameters suggest that in a situation where all producers are subjected to a common source of risk (e.g. rainfall): i) the institutional resources become less effective, and ii) combination of land, labor, knowledge and other complementary resources form the basis for adjustment mechanisms, sequential or strategic decisions, and that these decisions are directed towards maintaining the nuclear family. On the other hand, when essential resources such as land are government owned and household decisions are shared by the state, local institutions or social networks become an effective means to maintain reproduction of the farm and the producer through providing access to or sharing of resources.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Land; labor; indigenous knowledge; institutional resources; producers; Ethiopia; risk ; adjustment mechanisms; sequential or strategic decisions
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C4 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics > C44 - Operations Research ; Statistical Decision Theory; ; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D71 - Social Choice ; Clubs ; Committees ; Associations; D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D23 - Organizational Behavior ; Transaction Costs ; Property Rights; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D72 - Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O55 - Africa; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q15 - Land Ownership and Tenure ; Land Reform ; Land Use ; Irrigation ; Agriculture and Environment; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D13 - Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q18 - Agricultural Policy ; Food Policy; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q13 - Agricultural Markets and Marketing ; Cooperatives ; Agribusiness; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D85 - Network Formation and Analysis: Theory; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C8 - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology ; Computer Programs > C81 - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data ; Data Access; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q16 - R&D ; Agricultural Technology ; Biofuels ; Agricultural Extension Services; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D82 - Asymmetric and Private Information ; Mechanism Design

References

Andelson, R.V. 1991. Commons Without Tragedy: Protecting the Environment from Overpopulation- A new Approach. Barnes and Noble Books, Savage, Maryland.

Belay, H.S. 1977. Problems, Practices and Strategies for Rural Development in Ethiopia. Debrezeit Agricultural Experiment Station. Addis Ababa University.

Belete, A. 1989. An Economic Analysis of Smallholder Mixed Farmers in Ethiopia. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Armidale, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Australia.

Bell,C. 1972. The acquisition of agricultural technology: its determinants and effects. J. Dev. Studies. 9:123-59.

Berry, S. 1988. Property Rights and Rural Resource management: The Case of Tree Crops in West Africa. In J.W. Bennet and J.R. Bown (eds). Production and Autonomy: Anthropological Studies and Critique of Development. Monograph in Economic Anthropology, No.5, University Press of America, NY. pp.143-182.

Constable, M., 1983. Ethiopian Highland Reclamation Study: Summary, Ministry of Agriculture/FAO, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Eisemon, T.O. 1988. Becoming a Modern Farmer: The Impact of Primary Schooling on Agricultural Thinking and Practice in Kenya and Burundi. In D.M. Warren, L.Jan Slikkerveer, and S.O. Titilola. (eds) 1988. Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Implications for Agricultural and International Development. Studies in Technology and Social Change, No.11, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. pp.41-67.

Finnida. 1989. Base Line Survey: Selale Dairy Development Pilot Project. Unpublished Report

Gryseels, G. and F.M. Anderson. 1983. Research on Farm and Livestock Productivity in Central Ethiopian Highlands: Initial Results, 1977-1983. ILCA Research Bulletin Report No.4.

Gryseels, G. 1988. Role of Livestock on Mixed Smallholder Farms in the Ethiopian Highlands. A Case Study from the Baso and Worena Near Debrebirhan. Ph.D. Thesis, Agricultural Economics, Wageningen University.

Hardin, G. and J. Baden. 1977. Managing The Commons. W.H. Freeman and Company. San Francisco.

Jahnke, H.E. 1982. Livestock production Systems and Livestock Development in Tropical Africa. Kieler Wissenschaftsverlag Vank, Kiel, West Germany.

Jodha, N.C., and A.C. Mascarenhas .1983. Adjustments to Climatic Variability in Self Provisioning Societies: Some Evidences From India and Tanzania, ICRISAT Economics Program Progress Report No.4, India.

Kebede, Y. 1993. The Micro-Economics of Household Decision Making:The Case of Adoption of Technologies in Ethiopia. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Departments of Agricultural Economics and Anthropology, McGill University.

Ricket, James. 1991. Economic Development in Ethiopia: Agriculture, the market and the Sate, OECD, Paris.

Rogers, E.M. 1983. Diffusion of Innovations. 3rd. ed. New York: The Free Press, Collier, Macmillan.

Stevenson, G. 1991. Common Property Economics: A General Theory and Land Use Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Tietenberg, T. 1988. Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Scott, Foresman and Company, Glenview, Illinois.

Warren, D.M., L.Jan Slikkerveer, and S.O. Titilola. 1988. Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Implications for Agricultural and International Development. Studies in Technology and Social Change, No.11, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.