Impacts of a Litchi’s marketing alternative policy on land use change in upstream and downstream agricultural area

Abstract

     This research analyzed the effects of changes in land use in upstream and downstream agricultural areas that occur due to the introduction of selling dried litchi as a marketing innovation in the study area. Data were collected by interviewing 54 farm households, using a simple random sample drawn from 253 farm households during the 2009–2010 crop year. Each interview explored the resources used for crop production in the study area. The research study area was in PaNokKok (upstream) and Muang Kham (downstream) villages which are both located in the Mae Sa watershed, Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The data were analyzed using quantitative analysis based on a positive mathematical programming model (PMP) to simulate a baseline for crop production and policy scenarios. Then, the study compared the land use and resource use in the two models. The research revealed that the policy of selling dry litchi involved a total gross increase by 5.39 percent in the study area, which brought about an increase of 18.03 percent in litchi production and a 13.01 percent increase in water used by the upstream PaNokKok village. Because of the increased water use in the upstream agricultural crop area, the agricultural area in the downstream Muang Kham village did not have sufficient water and thereby, crop production decreased by 3.36 percent. Furthermore, the policy of selling dry litchi in the study area achieved a total gross margin increase of 24.01 percent upstream, whereas the downstream total gross margin decreased by 2.55 percent. Thus, the policy makers who have responsibility for agricultural land use policies intended to stimulate an increase in crop production should consider the characteristics of water flow within the entire watershed area so that land use policy that earmarks changes in upstream crop production also takes into account the effects these changes have on water use and land use in downstream watershed areas.