Wasantha Athukorala | University of Peradeniya (original) (raw)

Papers by Wasantha Athukorala

Modern commercial agricultural practices in Asia during the last three to four decades involving ... more Modern commercial agricultural practices in Asia during the last three to four decades involving chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) have been associated with large increases in food production never witnessed before, especially under the Green Revolution technology in South Asia. This also involves large-scale increases in commercial vegetable crops. However, the high reliance on chemical inputs to bring about these increases in food production is not without problems. A visible, parallel correlation between higher productivity, high artificial input use and environmental degradation and human ill-health is evident in many countries where commercial agriculture is widespread. In this chapter, we focus on the impact of chemical inputs, in particular the impact of pesticides on the environment and on human health in South Asia with special reference to Sri Lanka...

Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Dec 8, 2015

The disparity between willingness to accept (WTA) health risks and actual health risks arising fr... more The disparity between willingness to accept (WTA) health risks and actual health risks arising from environmental pollution has not been demonstrated well in the literature. This study provides evidence on WTA for bearing existing health risks arising from environmental pollution caused by the Limestone Industry in Sri Lanka. It compares mean WTA with monthly average health expenditure as well as the opportunity cost of health risk. The study finds that the average monthly health expenditure, averting expenditure and lost earning per person were Rs. 168, Rs. 85 and Rs. 262 respectively. Accordingly, opportunity cost of the health damage was Rs. 515 while mean willingness to accept was Rs. 792 per person. Results clearly show that mean WTA estimates tends to overestimate the true cost. The study also summarizes reasons for the disparity and then discusses some of the key implications of the analysis.

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Nov 24, 2017

Residential water demand management using price and non-price measures to conserve water has gain... more Residential water demand management using price and non-price measures to conserve water has gained considerable international attention from water utilities over the last few decades. The objective of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of different pricing schemes on water conservation. In this study, we compare the 'conservation-orientedness' of two pricing schemes. These are a uniform pricing scheme and an increasing block tariff scheme (IBT) structure. A quasi-experimental method is used for this purpose involving 150 suburbs in the Brisbane City Council (BCC) in Queensland, Australia for a 4-year period between 2005 and 2008. Our results show there are more conservation benefits associated with an IBT pricing scheme than a uniform pricing scheme.

Routledge eBooks, Feb 11, 2015

Journal of Forest Economics, Dec 1, 2017

Quantity depletion and quality deterioration issues arising from the extraction of groundwater ha... more Quantity depletion and quality deterioration issues arising from the extraction of groundwater have been discussed in previous studies. However, the literature reveals no systematic analysis of the possible social welfare losses due to the cost of both quantity depletion and quality deterioration. This paper therefore investigates the long run welfare cost of using groundwater for agriculture by including both quantity depletion and quality deterioration costs simultaneously. This is achieved through an empirical study of onion farmers in Sri Lanka who use groundwater for their cultivation. A significant social welfare loss is found in terms of both groundwater quantity and quality deterioration costs and which is likely to increase over the long run. This is shown to have important long run implications for land use management.

Empirical Economics, Oct 15, 2020

This study provides a quantitative assessment of the willingness to pay to avoid water use restri... more This study provides a quantitative assessment of the willingness to pay to avoid water use restrictions taking into account psychological, attitudinal and behavioural influences. We analyse determinants of households' willingness to pay to ensure a continuous water supply in Brisbane, Australia. The results show that in addition to socioeconomic variables, attitudinal and behavioural factors-including values, norms, and beliefs-influence residents' valuation. They also underscore the importance of accounting for socioeconomic variables and pertinent psychological and behavioural aspects when implementing policies to manage and conserve urban water.

Hydrogeology Journal, Jan 28, 2012

Extraction of groundwater for onion and other cash crop production has been increasing rapidly du... more Extraction of groundwater for onion and other cash crop production has been increasing rapidly during the last two decades in the dry zone areas of Sri Lanka. As a result of overuse, the quantity of available groundwater is gradually declining, while water quality is deteriorating. The deteriorating water quality has a negative impact on agricultural production, especially for crops (such as onions) that are sensitive to increases in salinity levels. This issue is examined with respect to onion production in Sri Lanka. A stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) is used, in which technical efficiency and the determinants of inefficiencies are estimated simultaneously. The results show that farmers are overusing groundwater in their onion cultivation which has resulted in decreasing yields. Factors contributing to inefficiency in production are also identified. The results have important policy implications.

Land Use Policy, Mar 1, 2019

and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requi... more and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

... with regard to forests and forest management NCCARF Synthesis and Integrative Research Progra... more ... with regard to forests and forest management NCCARF Synthesis and Integrative Research Program Geoff Cockfield, Tek Maraseni, Laurie Buys, Jeffrey Sommerfeld, Clevo Wilson and Wasantha Athukorala Image: Peter Halasz ... Authors Geoff Cockfield 1 Tek Maraseni 1 ...

Economic Analysis and Policy, Sep 1, 2019

Bushfires are a common occurrence and are an inevitable natural event in many regions of Australi... more Bushfires are a common occurrence and are an inevitable natural event in many regions of Australia in most years. Despite the dangers of such bushfires to nearby properties and human life, humans continue to live in close proximity to bushfire prone areas. The pertinent questions asked in this study are whether residents are aware of the dangers of living in such areas-and if so, is it reflected in lower property values? Such residents have the choice of either discounting the risks of bushfires in their neighbourhoods or deciding to pay more to live in bushfire areas for the positive amenity values afforded by forested bushland settings. Buyers paying a premium price to live in close proximity to green space are well documented in hedonic property (HP) values studies. We examine this phenomenon using data available for forested bushfire prone areas in the immediate environs of the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia using an HP values approach. For this study sales data of 1028 houses in four suburbs are used. The regression results clearly show that residents in fact are paying more to be close to green space (forested areas) which is also clearly identified as bushfire prone areas. The threat of bushfires may have an effect on property prices but it is dominated by the desire to live close to green spaces.

Energy Economics, Sep 1, 2010

This study investigates the short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium relationship between resi... more This study investigates the short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium relationship between residential electricity demand and factors influencing demand-per capita income, price of electricity, price of kerosene oil and price of liquefied petroleum gas-using annual data for Sri Lanka for the period, 1960-2007. The study uses unit root, cointegration and error correction models. The long-run demand elasticities of income, own price and price of kerosene oil (substitute) were estimated to be 0.78,-0.62, and 0.14 respectively. The short-run elasticities for the same variables were estimated to be 0.32,-0.16 and 0.10 respectively. Liquefied petroleum (LP) gas is a substitute for electricity only in the short-run with an elasticity of 0.09. The main findings of the paper support the following (1) increasing the price of electricity is not the most effective tool to reduce electricity consumption (2) existing subsidies on electricity consumption can be removed without reducing government revenue (3) the long-run income elasticity of demand shows that any future increase in household incomes is likely to significantly increase the demand for electricity (4) any power generation plans which consider only current per capita consumption and population growth should be revised taking into account the potential future income increases in order to avoid power shortages in the country.

Economic Analysis and Policy, Mar 1, 2023

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Mar 14, 2012

Pesticide spraying by farmers has an adverse impact on their health. However, in studies to date ... more Pesticide spraying by farmers has an adverse impact on their health. However, in studies to date examining farmers' exposure to pesticides, the costs of ill-health and their determinants have been based on information provided by farmers themselves. Some doubt has therefore been cast on the reliability of these estimates. In this study, we address this by conducting surveys among two groups of farmers who use pesticides on a regular basis. The first group is made up of farmers who perceive that their ill-health is due to exposure to pesticides and have obtained at least some form of treatment (described in this paper as the 'general farmer group'). The second group is composed of farmers whose ill-health has been diagnosed by doctors and who have been treated in hospital for exposure to pesticides (described here as the 'hospitalised farmer group'). Cost comparisons are made between the two groups of farmers. Regression analysis of the determinants of health costs show that the most important determinants of medical costs for both samples are the defensive expenditure, the quantity of pesticides used per acre per month, frequency of pesticide use and number of pesticides used per hour per day. The results have important policy implications.

Sri Lanka Journal of Economic Research, Jun 25, 2015

The study 1 attempts to investigate the role of education and environmental concerns in conservin... more The study 1 attempts to investigate the role of education and environmental concerns in conserving 'agricultural biodiversity' of diverse farming systems in Sri Lanka. It analyses how farmers' valuation of agricultural biodiversity alters with education on agricultural biodiversity and environmental concerns. The Choice Experiment (CE) Method, combined with Randomized Control Method (RCM) was used to collect data, while models such as Conditional Logit (CL) and Random Parameter (RP) Logit were used to analyse the collected data. The results clearly illustrate that farmers' education level, as well as environmental concerns play a major role in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity. The overall findings of this study will help the policy makers to implement relevant policies in reducing degradation of agricultural biodiversity, which is increasingly posing a major impediment to agricultural growth, to the environmental protection and sustainable development.

Sri Lanka Journal of Economic Research, Jun 1, 2019

This study attempts to identify the key determinants of residential demand for electricity in rur... more This study attempts to identify the key determinants of residential demand for electricity in rural and urban households in Sri Lanka. Yearly data for 108 randomly selected households (54 from each - urban and rural) for a five years period were used for the estimation. Fixed effect model is used to determine the responsiveness of electricity consumption to its own price, differences in price, price of alternative fuel, income and variables relating to the social-economic characteristics of the household. Price elasticity and income elasticity for electricity in the urban households are estimated to be -0.38 and 0.15 while they are -0.04 and 0.14 for rural households, respectively, which confirm the previous findings, as the electricity is inelastic and a normal good. Furthermore, the estimated model demonstrates the importance of including the household level information for identifying the determinants of electricity demand, which is not possible using aggregate level data in a country.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jul 30, 2010

This study examines the cointegration and causality relationship between the demand for residenti... more This study examines the cointegration and causality relationship between the demand for residential electricity and real income, average real electricity prices, real kerosene prices and real gas prices using annual data for the period, 1960-2007 in Sri Lanka. Error correction (EC) techniques and the Grangercausality (GC) approaches are employed. The long run income elasticity of demand, price elasticity of demand and kerosene price were estimated to be 0.78,-0.62, and 0.14 respectively. The short run elasticities for the same variables were 0.32,-0.16 and 0.10 respectively. The GC results detect bidirectional causality between electricity consumption and real income as well as electricity prices and its consumption. This suggests that these variables are determined jointly. Furthermore, one-way causality running from kerosene price to electricity demand was also found.

Sri Lanka Journal of Economic Research, Nov 30, 2017

The overall aim of this study is to identify the role of agricultural extension services in impro... more The overall aim of this study is to identify the role of agricultural extension services in improving technical efficiency in the rice farming sector in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the study attempts to investigate how the agricultural extension service received by the farmers can improve technical efficiency (TE), using 200 farm-level data points in Ampara district in Sri Lanka. The Stochastic Production Frontier approach is used to estimate technical efficiency. Results show that the mean TE of rice farming in the study area is 0.61, although 54 % of rice farmers exceeded this average. This indicates that there is scope to further increase the output by 39 percent without increasing the level of input. It is also found that the contribution of the agricultural officers on increasing technical efficiency level is approximately 13 percent. This implies that production of paddy could be increased significantly by increasing the role of agricultural officers in the country. The overall findings of this research will help implement policies to increase the technical efficiency which is increasingly posing a major impediment to agricultural growth, environmental protection and sustainable development in any country.

Sustainable Cities and Society, Jul 1, 2017

Managing water resources and the need to adapt both supply and demand side policies to a changing... more Managing water resources and the need to adapt both supply and demand side policies to a changing environment has become a priority in both developed and developing countries. This research demonstrates the application of the geographic information system (GIS) in modelling residential water demand in order to develop a spatial decision support system (SDSS). Household level survey data covering 90 suburbs within the Brisbane City Council (BCC), Queensland, Australia, are used for the analysis. Firstly, residential water demand was estimated and the most significant variables found to predict high water use at the suburban level. These variables included household size, presence of a swimming pool, income and people over 65 years of age. By integrating this model with an SDSS, a spatial decision support system for residential water demand (SDSS-RWD) is developed. By producing maps which clearly display the different factors affecting residential water demand, the benefit of the SDSS-RWD is found in its use as a policy making tool for manipulating and evaluating effective water management strategies. In particular, the flexibility of the SDSS-RWD offers in evaluating changing determinants of residential water demand creates the capacity for local government bodies to analyse a range of alternative policies.

A plethora of literature exists on irrigation development. However, only a few studies analyse th... more A plethora of literature exists on irrigation development. However, only a few studies analyse the distributional issues associated with irrigation induced technological changes (IITC) in the context of commodity markets. Furthermore, these studies deal with only the theoretical arguments and to date no proper investigation has been conducted to examine the long-term benefits of adopting modern irrigation technology. This study investigates the long-term benefit changes of irrigation induced technological changes using data from Sri Lanka with reference to rice farming. The results show that (1) adopting modern technology on irrigation increases the overall social welfare through consumption of a larger quantity at a lower cost (2) the magnitude, sensitivity and distributional gains depend on the price elasticity of demand and supply as well as the size of the marketable surplus (3) non-farm sector gains are larger than farm sector gains (4) the distribution of the benefits among different types of producers depend on the magnitude of the expansion of the irrigated areas as well as the competition faced by traditional farmers (5) selective technological adoption and subsidies have a detrimental effect on the welfare of other producers who do not enjoy the same benefits (6) the short-term distributional effects are more severe than the long-term effects among different groups of farmers.