The Economic Effects Of Pricing Irrigation Water

As globalization links economies, the value of a country's irrigation water becomes increasingly sensitive to competitive forces in world markets. Water policy at the national and regional levels will need to accommodate these forces or water is likely to become undervalued. The inefficient use of this resource will lessen a country's comparative advantage in world markets and slow its transition to higher incomes, particularly in rural households. While professionals widely agree on what constitutes sound water resource management, they have not yet reached a consensus on the best ways of implementing policies. Policymakers have considered pricing water - a debated intervention - in many variations. Setting the price 'right,' some say, may guide different types of users in efficient water use by sending a signal about the value of this resource. Aside from efficiency, itself an important policy objective, equity, accessibility, and implementation costs associated with the right pricing must be considered. Focusing on the examples of China, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, and Turkey, Pricing Irrigation Water provides a clear methodology for studying farm-level demand for irrigation water. This book is the first to link the macroeconomics of policies affecting trade to the microeconomics of water demand for irrigation and, in the case of Morocco, to link these forces to the creation of a water user-rights market. This type of market reform, the contributors argue, will result in growing economic benefits to both rural and urban households.

As globalization links economies, the value of a country's irrigation water becomes increasingly sensitive to competitive forces in world markets. Water policy at the national and regional levels will need to accommodate these forces or water is likely to become undervalued. The inefficient use of this resource will lessen a country's comparative advantage in world markets and slow its transition to higher incomes, particularly in rural households. While professionals widely agree on what constitutes sound water resource management, they have not yet reached a consensus on the best ways of implementing policies. Policymakers have considered pricing water - a debated intervention - in many variations. Setting the price 'right,' some say, may guide different types of users in efficient water use by sending a signal about the value of this resource. Aside from efficiency, itself an important policy objective, equity, accessibility, and implementation costs associated with the right pricing must be considered. Focusing on the examples of China, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, and Turkey, Pricing Irrigation Water provides a clear methodology for studying farm-level demand for irrigation water. This book is the first to link the macroeconomics of policies affecting trade to the microeconomics of water demand for irrigation and, in the case of Morocco, to link these forces to the creation of a water user-rights market. This type of market reform, the contributors argue, will result in growing economic benefits to both rural and urban households.

This book contains 14 separately authored chapters on the pricing of irrigation water. The chapters are entitled: (1) Water pricing in irrigation: the lifetime of an idea; (2) Water pricing in irrigation: mapping the debate in the light of experience; (3) Why is agricultural water demand unresponsive at low price ranges; (4) Get the prices right: a model of water prices and irrigation efficiency in Maharashtra, India; (5) Thailand's free water: rationale for a water charge and policy shifts; (6) Water rights and water fees in rural Tanzania; (7) Who will pay for water? The Vietnamese State's dilemma of decentralization of water management in the Red River Delta; (8) Water pricing in Haryana, India; (9) The energy-irrigation nexus in South Asia: groundwater conservation and power sector viability; (10) Wells and canals in Jordan: can pricing policies regulate irrigation water use; (11) Water pricing in Tadla, Morocco; (12) Water pricing policies and recent reforms in China: the conflict between conservation and other policy goals; (13) Water pricing and irrigation: a review of the European experience; and (14) Policy-driven determinants of irrigation development and environmental sustainability: a case study in Spain.

Extract: This report outlines important factors affecting the choice of pricing systems for irrigation water. First we review the goals of pricing and regulatory schemes and then analyze other factors affecting choices. Marginal cost pricing is explained and identified with a way of thinking about administered prices rather than a rigid system. Finally, alternative pricing schemes are illustrated and some conclusions are offered.

This work presents models that characterize the relationships between quantity and quality of irrigation water application, and agricultural production and the environment. A comprehensive modeling approach addressing both the benefits of irrigation and the potential negative effects is introduced. Physical-biological concepts are combined with economic and engineering principles to demonstrate the usefulness of the model for analyzing various water management and policy issues. Decision makers on all levels should find the modeling approach interesting and useful in the management issues from the farm to national levels.

World population is set to increase by a third in the next 25 years, with no corresponding increase in global rainfall. About seventy per cent of the world's abstracted water is used in farming and therefore the economics of irrigation is becoming an increasingly important issue for sustainable development. Water for Agriculture provides a thorough overview of this highly topical subject, written in a clear and accessible style. The Scope of the book is wide both in its analysis and in its geographical coverage. Topics covered include the infrastructure, operation and maintenance of irrigation service supply, the supply of drainage services, economic cost benefit analysis, water resource planning at the regional scale, political economy and irrigation policy. The content of Water for Agriculture is enhanced by numerous tables, diagrams, and in-depth case studies. This book will be an essential read for those professionals involved in the planning of water resources, and for advanced students studying this topic as part of agriculture, development studies, economics, engineering, environmental science, geography, hydrology and planning courses.

Values and facts; The economic analysis of different values; Facts: public failure and maket failure; Water resource management and market failure; Summing; Conclusion: toward improved water resources management.