OAR@ICRISATA Comparative Study of Social Behavior in Irrigated and Rainfed Areas: The Case of Bohol Irrigation Scheme, the Philippines.Rural Paper 37HParkauthorT WTsusakaauthorV OPedeauthorThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between management of canal (gravity) irrigation and farmers’ social behavior. From this perspective, we examine the benefits of a rural canal irrigation project, based on our hypothesis that social behaviors of local farmers are influenced by the availability of canal irrigation due to the collective irrigation management required in irrigated societies. The present paper (1) measures social behavior through behavioral game experiments, and (2) estimates the effects of irrigation, neighborhood, as well as individual characteristics. Drawing on the results of dictator game and ultimatum game as the dependent variables, with a household survey on 245 villagers in the province of Bohol, the Philippines, we employ the HLM (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) method which was originally designed to explore neighborhood effects and social contexts. To date, the model has provided quantitative analyses of the latter. Yet, it has not been fully utilized for neighborhood effects studies. Our regression result shows that the level of measured social behavior is fairly associated with 1) access to irrigation water in the village, 2) other neighborhood characteristics (e.g., village-level averages of schooling years, asset, and yield) 3) household’s socioeconomic and agricultural characteristics (e.g., household-level schooling years, asset, and yield). The result indicates that the availability of irrigation water in the village does not only improve agricultural productivity but also enhances social relationship among farmers, which would add to the importance of irrigation investment in rural areas.Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics2013Conference or Workshop Item

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