Sustainability and Economic Viability of Cereals Grown Under Alternative Treatments of Water-Harvesting in Highland Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Rainfed crop production in highland Balochistan, Pakistan, is a limited and risky practice due to a wide variation in rainfall. To ascertain the sustainability and economic viability of wheat and barley cultivation under three different water-harvesting treatments, intertemporal and interspatial total factor productivity (TFP) indices respectively were used. In the traditional practice treatment the entire plot is planted. In the 1:1 treatment half the plot is used for water catchment and half is planted; in the 2:1 treatment, two-thirds of the plot is used for water catchment and one-third for planting. Intertemporal TFPs had large fluctuations in both cereals; they were used to determine the slopes of TFP trends, but the assessment of sustainability was unreliable owing to a low number of measurements. Interspatial TFPs showed that wheat under the 1:1 treatment and barley under the 2:1 treatment were the most economically viable. Comparison of crops within a given water-harvesting treatment showed that barley was more productive than wheat under traditional practice and that wheat was more viable than barley under the 1:1 treatment.