Faculty Publications
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736
Publications by NITK Faculty
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Public expenditure effectiveness for biodiversity conservation: Understanding the trends for project tiger in India(Now Publishers Inc, 2020) Nayak, B.P.; Jena, P.R.; Chaudhury, S.Project Tiger, a flagship programme for conservation of the tiger launched in 1973 in India has expanded over the years in terms of its geographical coverage and volume of expenditure. However, the tiger is still an endangered species in India and conservation efforts face multiple challenges like widespread loss of tiger habitat, decline in the density of prey animals, illegal poaching, human-animal conflicts and revenge killing. This study explores the trends and patterns of government expenditure over the years by reviewing the annual plan of operation of different tiger reserves and examines whether the volume or the pattern of expenditure has any relationship with performance, measured by the change in the number of tigers and occupancy in 28 tiger reserves. Analysis of the financial outlay data in the Annual Plan of Operation of the tiger reserves suggest that habitat improvement, which includes relocation, gets the highest share whereas human-animal conflict and eco-development gets the least, though more than 0.5 million households are located in and around the tiger reserves 0.3 million. Allocations are neither proportional to the size of the reserve nor to the tiger population. The relationships between expenditure categories and tiger populations are explored through a negative binomial regression model. Among the expenditure categories, expenditure on habitat improvement, excluding relocation, is found to be negatively related to tiger population whereas all other expenditures like infrastructure, protection, and human-animal conflict are positively related. © 2020 B. P. Nayak and P. R. Jena and S. ChaudhuryItem Evolution of Fertiliser Use and its Impact on Maize Productivity in Kenya: Evidence from Multiple Surveys(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2021) Jena, P.R.; De Groote, H.; Nayak, B.P.; Hittmeyer, A.During the 1990s, the Kenyan agricultural sector became increasingly liberalised. For many years, both government- and non-government organisations have advised farmers on fertiliser doses, and therefore, an increase in fertiliser adoption resulting in higher yields has been expected. We analyse the evolution of fertiliser use and its impact on maize productivity and household incomes in Kenya, using four household surveys conducted between 1992 and 2013. Each survey represented all six maize-producing zones of Kenya. The results show that the percentage of fertiliser users among maize farmers has increased slightly over the years (from 62% in 1992 to 65% in 2013), and the quantity of fertiliser applied per ha has increased (from 82 kg/ha in 1992 to 100 kg/ha in 2013) but remains far below recommended levels. Therefore, maize yields have remained stagnant, or even decreased slightly (from 1360 kg/ha in 1992 to 1116 kg/ha in 2013). We also observe that the following factors affect fertiliser use and maize yields: education of the household head; area under maize cultivation; agroecological zone; uneven access to extension services; and food insecurity. We also find that fertiliser use has a positive impact on both maize yields and household income. We conclude that the liberalisation of fertiliser markets in Kenya did not have the desired effect of increasing fertiliser use and consequently maize yields, except in the high potential maize-growing areas. Possible explanations include both market factors, e.g. high prices, and non-market factors, e.g. access to information. We make two policy recommendations based on these findings – firstly, the targeted outreach of extension services should be considered, to increase fertiliser use and yields in less-productive regions, and secondly, policies should be considered that incorporate provisions for weather shocks. © 2020, International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V.