Issues In The Efficient Use Of Surface And Groundwater In Irrigation

Issues in the Efficient Use of Surface and Groundwater in Irrigation

The efficient use of water resources where both ground and surface water are used may require special policies to rationalize the interaction among pumping by farmers, canal diversions by irrigation system managers, and the physical response of the stream aquifer system. Significant gains in output are possible from more efficient conjunctive use. However, these potential gains are not costless because their realization requires changes in irrigation institutions, methods of irrigation management, and often accompanying investments in drainage facilities. Three broad approaches to the problem have been defined: (i) assignment of well-defined, transferrable legal property rights; (ii) imposition of corrective taxes or subsidies; and (iii) centralized control over the entire resource. The feasibility and institutional implications of these approaches are discussed and several case histories of actual policy responses to the social costs incurred by conjunctive use are reviewed. The prognosis is hopeful, but better information systems, more skilled managers, and institutional reforms are needed.

Issues in the efficient use of surface and groundwater in irrigation

The Journal of Agricultural Economics Research