Farmers’ incentives to save water with new irrigation systems and water taxation—A case study of Serbian potato production

Drip irrigation systems and irrigation strategies like deficit irrigation (DI) and partial root drying (PRD) are potential water saving irrigation systems and strategies. This paper analyses the Serbian farmer's economic incentive to use these water saving systems and strategies instead of the present sprinkler irrigation. The analysis is a partial budgeting analysis, based on irrigation application efficiency from the literature, standard figures for power requirements, pumping efficiency and friction losses for various sources of water and pressure requirements, yields and water use from recent Serbian field experiments, as well as prices and cost structures for potatoes collected in the Belgrade region. The analysis shows that changing the present system and strategy can save a significant amount of water (almost 50%). At the same time, however, irrigation costs are also significantly increased (more than doubled), and the total production costs are increased by 10% (deficit drip irrigation) and 23% (PRD). Increased taxes on water, investment subsidies, increased energy prices, and an increased yield or yield quality may provide incentives for farmers to change to new systems and strategies. The analysis indicates that a 0.80 to 1.97 € m⁻³ water tax is needed to make deficit drip irrigation and PRD profitable. The socioeconomic cost of providing water for irrigation and the alternative value of saved water are probably not that high. Thus, water taxation may not be a socioeconomic efficient means to improve the irrigation water productivity of Serbian potato production. Drip irrigation and PRD may, however, also increase the yield quality, and a 10-23% quality premium (price increase) is needed to make deficit drip irrigation and PRD profitable.     

Irrigation modernization and water conservation in Spain: The case of Riegos del Alto Aragón

This study analyzes the effects of irrigation modernization on water conservation, using the Riegos del Alto Aragón (RAA) irrigation project (NE Spain, 123354 ha) as a case study. A conceptual approach, based on water accounting and water productivity, has been used. Traditional surface irrigation systems and modern sprinkler systems currently occupy 73% and 27% of the irrigated area, respectively. Virtually all the irrigated area is devoted to field crops. Nowadays, farmers are investing on irrigation modernization by switching from surface to sprinkler irrigation because of the lack of labour and the reduction of net incomes as a consequence of reduction in European subsidies, among other factors. At the RAA project, modern sprinkler systems present higher crop yields and more intense cropping patterns than traditional surface irrigation systems. Crop evapotranspiration and non-beneficial evapotranspiration (mainly wind drift and evaporation loses, WDEL) per unit area are higher in sprinkler irrigated than in surface irrigated areas. Our results indicate that irrigation modernization will increase water depletion and water use. Farmers will achieve higher productivity and better working conditions. Likewise, the expected decreases in RAA irrigation return flows will lead to improvements in the quality of the receiving water bodies. However, water productivity computed over water depletion will not vary with irrigation modernization due to the typical linear relationship between yield and evapotranspiration and to the effect of WDEL on the regional water balance. Future variations in crop and energy prices might change the conclusions on economic productivity.     

Higher performance through combined improvements in irrigation methods and scheduling: a discussion

Prior to the discussion on approaches to combine irrigation scheduling and water application practices, several farm irrigation performance indicators are defined and analysed. These indicators concern the uniformity of water distribution along an irrigated field and the efficiency of on-farm water application. Then, the analysis focus is on three main irrigation systems: surface, sprinkler and microirrigation. For each of these systems, the analysis concerns the main characteristics and constraints of the systems, more relevant aspects influencing irrigation performances, and approaches which could lead to a more appropriate coupling of irrigation scheduling and water application methods. Conclusions point out on the need for combined improvements in irrigation scheduling and methods, for expanding field evaluation of irrigation in farmers fields, for improved design of on-farm systems, and for quality control of irrigation equipments and design.     

Access to groundwater and agricultural production in China

Although the ways in which farmers access irrigation services in areas that rely on groundwater have changed over the past decade, little empirical work has measured the impact of these changes. This is surprising given the potential effects—both positive and negative. In this paper we explore the impacts of the emergence of the markets for irrigation services from groundwater on agricultural production - including crop water use and crop yields - and farmer income in northern China. From a survey of 35 randomly sampled villages and 338 households in two provinces (Hebei and Henan Provinces) in 2001 and 2004, we show that when farmers access water from markets for irrigation services, they significantly reduce water use, compared with farmers who have their own tubewells. However, there is no significant difference between the volume of water used by farmers who access irrigation services provided by the village, and the volume used by farmers who access water from markets for irrigation services. Importantly, although water use decreases, we find little effect on either agricultural productivity (yields) or income.     

A benefit-cost analysis of smallholder irrigated farms in Zimbabwe

The government of Zimbabwe uses agricultural development as one of the ways to stimulate economic growth. Agriculture in Zimbabwe is characterized by a dual agrarian system comprising the large scale commercial sector and the smallholder communal sector. The communal sector, 47 percent of the country, supports more than 70 percent of the population. One strategy used to improve agricultural performance is the development of agricultural infrastructure. Of the 117, 830 ha developed for irrigation only slightly more than 6 percent is in the communal (smallholder) sector. The smallholder irrigation systems are managed under four different systems, namely the government-managed Agritex, farmer-managed community, the informal bani (dambo) managed by farmers and the ARDA outgrowers managed jointly by a parastatal and farmers. This paper evaluates the benefits and costs associated with these different management systems. Benefit-cost ratios are computed for each system. The bani system achieves higher benefit-cost ratios than the community, which achieves higher ratios than the Agritex management system. This indicates that the government should consider using the community system for developing the potential 93,000 ha of communal smallholder irrigation systems. It should also seriously consider the bani system as an alternative development strategy.     

Water user associations in Inner Mongolia: Factors that influence farmers to join

Irrigation districts in Inner Mongolia face problems that are familiar to irrigation areas around the world: shortage of water resources, poor management of water, inefficient use of water resources, and imbalance of financial revenues and expenditures. Water user associations have been promoted to address water supply problems and to encourage efficient water use. In this study, farmers from three distinct areas in Inner Mongolia were surveyed to determine their level of understanding of water user associations and the factors that affect their becoming members. A majority of respondents thought that water user associations were useful to safeguard farmers’ interests, to help reduce labour inputs and disputes about water, to reduce irrigation costs, and to promote efficient water use. The factors found to be most important were: (1) being a village cadre; (2) good state of health; (3) high degree of understanding about water user associations; (4) small percentage of the household in the labour force; (5) cropping income a high percentage of family income; (6) having had previous conflicts involving water use issues.     

I Ssues of Irrigation of Horticultural Crops by Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

Although smallholder farmers have practised irrigation in Kenya, the introduction small-scale irrigation for horticultural production is relatively a recent development. The increase in irrigation practice has been promoted by the rapid increase in the growth of the horticultural industry. This research examined factors influencing irrigation of horticultural crops on smallholdings in Kenya. The key informants were smallholder irrigation farmers (including low-cost drip), representatives of the irrigation industry, Non Governmental Organisations and the government. The informants were interviewed in a survey of semi-structured open-ended questionnaires.The main problems reported were inadequate technical support service, unreliable water supply, and poor marketing of produce. The government policy on promotion of low cost technology was apparently not clear to the extension staff. Manufactures considered the sector especially the low-cost drip irrigation too small to promote actively. Some of these factors are likely to present a major challenge to developers in the promotion of smallholder irrigation technology in parts of the country.     

Empirical assessment of water management institutions in northern China

We examine the development of irrigation management in northern China using data from village and household panels. During the past decade, reform-oriented institutions, such as water user associations and contracting, have largely replaced the traditional institution of collective management in village-level irrigation systems. A feature unique to China is that water user associations and contractors are provided with monetary incentives to save water. Water user associations have not yet achieved the broad-based participation of farmers that some advocates consider as a primary goal for forming the associations. Many village leaders serve also as the leaders of water user associations, thus possibly reducing opportunities for receiving operational input and policy direction from farmers. However, we observe improved performance of irrigation systems managed by water user associations, relative to collective management, in terms of maintenance expenditures, the timeliness of water deliveries, and the rates of fee collection. Performance has improved also in systems managed by contractors, although not as substantially as in the case of water user associations.     

A Farmer-Centered Analysis of Irrigation Management Transfer in Mexico

With the rewritten Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution and the National Water Law of 1992, Mexico embarked on an ambitious program of transferring the management of many irrigation systems to local user groups, primarily farmers. By 1996, 372 water user associations had been formed to control water delivery to 2.92 million hectares. During this time water prices increased by 45–180% and government O&M subsidies were eliminated. Limited economic analysis of stakeholder impact has been conducted of the irrigation management transfer (IMT) program. This research effort pilots a partial budget analytical framework for analyzing the social benefits and costs of IMT. Two irrigation modules near Culiacan, Sinaloa were selected as case studies. Results reveal that even with significantly higher water prices, water users have invested more in their systems than during the post-IMT period and consider their overall irrigation costs to be lower. Lower transaction costs in the pre-IMT period explain the majority of these cost savings. Efforts to quantify incremental benefits and costs associated with IMT at the module and district levels proved difficult given the unavailability of reliable, time series information.     

Farmer participation in irrigation management: The case of Doroodzan Dam Irrigation Network, Iran

The importance of farmer participation in system design and management has been emphasized in previous studies. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting farmer participation in irrigation management using survey research. The study was conducted in Doroodzan Dam Irrigation Network in Fars province, Iran. Multistage stratified random sampling was used to collect data from 270 farmers as the research sample. Results reveal that farmers’ attitudes toward participation in irrigation management, attitudes toward personnel of the State Water Authority and the Agricultural Extension Service Centers (AESCs), family size, the problem perception, dependence on the dam for water, and educational background have influenced their participation in irrigation management. By contrast, contact with information sources, animal units, sociability, age and agricultural experience did not affect farmers’ participation. Moreover, based on farmers’ perspectives, unequal water distribution among farms, dissatisfaction with Water Authority operators and high water fees and charges were the main problems and obstacles toward farmer participation in irrigation management.     

Modernization and optimization of irrigation systems to increase water productivity

Population increase and the improvement of living standards brought about by development will result in a sharp increase in food demand during the next decades. Most of this increase will be met by the products of irrigated agriculture. At the same time, the water input per unit irrigated area will have to be reduced in response to water scarcity and environmental concerns. Water productivity is projected to increase through gains in crop yield and reductions in irrigation water. In order to meet these projections, irrigation systems will have to be modernized and optimised. Water productivity can be defined in a number of ways, although it always represents the output of a given activity (in economic terms, if possible) divided by some expression of water input. Five expressions for this indicator were identified, using different approaches to water input. A hydrological analysis of water productivity poses a number of questions on the choice of the water input expression. In fact, when adopting a basin-wide perspective, irrigation return flows often can not be considered as net water losses. A number of irrigation modernization and optimization measures are discussed in the paper. Particular attention was paid to the improvement of irrigation management, which shows much better economic return than the improvement of the irrigation structures. The hydrological effects of these improvements may be deceiving, since they will be accompanied by larger crop evapotranspiration and even increased cropping intensity. As a consequence, less water will be available for alternative uses.     

Water-table modelling to estimate irrigation losses: application to the Lower Durance, France

The consumption of water by irrigation in agriculture is very large and thus the effects of the management of irrigation systems on aquifers are very important. The basis of this preliminary study into the reduction of this consumption is to improve our understanding of the losses resulting from water transport and deep seepage inside the irrigated areas of cultivation (parcels) at the regional level (100 km) by studying water-table variations with reference to anthropogenic contributions. The use of a hydrodynamic model that incorporates adjustment of the quantity of irrigation water by a reduction coefficient enables actual water-table behaviour to be simulated. Losses can thus be deduced from the quantity of irrigation water flowing into the irrigation system and from hydrometeorological parameters.

Application of the technique in the Lower Durance (France) indicates that, in this region, 53% of the water remains in the irrigation network and 19% is lost by deep seepage, leaving only 28% of the water supplied for use by plants.     

Evaluating drip irrigation in commercial tea production in Tanzania

This paper evaluates the performance of the first drip irrigation scheme in commercial tea production in Tanzania with a view to making recommendations for improved management and providing data for investment decisions. Uniformity, efficiency and adequacy of irrigation were calculated and the scheduling of irrigation water was reviewed. Operators were interviewed to highlight the main benefits and problems of the system. Investment and recurrent costs of drip and overhead sprinkler systems were quantified and compared. Root development was assessed qualitatively using excavation pits. Irrigation uniformity DU and efficiency ranged between 88 and 95% in the 10 out of 14 irrigation blocks where endline pressures were at least 0.5 bars, and between 77 and 89% in the four blocks were endline pressure was less than 0.5 bars. Scheduling drip irrigation using tensiometers offered potential water savings of 26% in comparison to a water balance schedule, but these are not currently realised. Gross marginal income was very sensitive to tea price and yield. Economically optimal fertilizer rates vary in dependence of tea price and yield and appear to be lower than the current level of 300 kg N ha⁻¹. The higher costs under drip, compared to overhead sprinklers, were mainly for purchase and installation and fertilizer. The costs of labour for applying water and fertilizer were reduced by nearly 50%. At average 2002 tea prices of 1.31 US$ kg⁻¹, drip irrigation would improve the grower’s gross margin if an additional yield of at least 411 kg ha⁻¹ was achieved. The main threats to drip system performance are discussed. Future research efforts should aim at establishing the yield response of tea to water and fertilizer under drip irrigation.     

清丰县英满城试区咸水利用的初步研究

两年来咸水利用试验所取得的初步结果表明：在英满城咸水区矿化度３克／升左右的盐性咸水是完全可以利用的，不仅在小麦生长的中、后期可以利用，而且在小麦返青期也可以利用．从而打破了当地群众在小麦苗期不敢浇咸水，一浇就死的传统观念，为咸水的合理开发利用提供了科学依据。     

Didactic tools for supporting participatory water management in collective irrigation schemes

In many irrigation schemes, Water Users Associations (WUAs) acquired the responsibility for water management after withdrawal of the state. Based on the success of some indigenous irrigation schemes, it was assumed that farmers could easily become managers. As decision-making was the exclusive terrain of the governmental agencies that ran the schemes, farmers never gained the necessary experience with water management. Therefore, training of farmers and WUAs on the principles and processes of water management is essential. This paper demonstrates a practical example of training material on water management that incorporates research results on the process of Irrigation Management Transfer and resulting farmers’ water management for the case of the Office du Niger irrigation scheme. The results of the paper explain how input from research was used in the four steps of the construction of training material. These steps are (1) setting the training agenda, (2) selecting and adapting information to be featured, (3) targeting the audience and (4) designing the actual training material. A first validation of the approach and examples of the actual training material were obtained in a workshop uniting all stakeholders.     

Water allocation practices among smallholder farmers in the South Pare Mountains, Tanzania: The issue of scale

The impact of ambitious water sector reforms, that have been implemented in many countries, has not been uniform, especially in Africa. It has been argued that the disconnect between the formal statutory reality at national level and what is happening on the ground may have widened rather than shrunk. There is, therefore, a renewed interest in local water allocation arrangements and how they function. This study looks at water sharing practices and agreements among smallholder farmers in Makanya catchment (300 km²), which is part of Pangani river basin (42,200 km²) in northern Tanzania. Existing water sharing agreements have been studied in the Vudee sub-catchment (25 km²), which has about 38 irrigation furrows of which 20 have micro-dams. Five micro-dams are located at the downstream side of the sub-catchment. At the outlet of the Makanya catchment, farmers practice spate irrigation, using the residual flows from the highlands to irrigate.Based on interviews with smallholder farmers and supported by hydrological data water sharing agreements were found to exist among irrigators using the same furrow, among furrows using the same river and at sub-catchment scale. Some agreements date back to the 1940s. They mostly specify water sharing on a rotational basis at all three scales. No water sharing agreements were found at catchment scale, such as between the water users in Vudee sub-catchment and Makanya village.The study concludes that, as a result of the increase in demand for a diminishing resource, tradeoffs between upstream and downstream water uses have emerged at an increasingly larger spatial scale. At the catchment scale, downstream water users have changed their practices to accommodate the changes in the flow. Currently these claims for water do not clash as upstream water users use the base flow (which does not reach downstream anymore) and downstream water users utilise the flood flows. The water sharing arrangements at sub-catchment scale are negotiated through the social networks of the smallholder farmers and are therefore build on the social ties between the communities. However, at catchment scale, the social ties appear relatively weak in addition to the hydrological disconnect; these links are possibly too weak to build new water sharing arrangements on. It may therefore be necessary to involve more formal levels of government, such as Pangani Basin Water Office, to facilitate the negotiation process and create awareness on the inter-linkages of various water uses at catchment scale.     

Drip Planner Chart: a simple irrigation scheduling tool for smallholder drip farmers

Drip irrigation is widely recognized as potentially one of the most efficient irrigation methods. However, this efficiency is often not achieved because systems are not always well designed or maintained and many farmers lack the tools to assess the crop water requirements and to monitor the soil moisture conditions in the field. There is a vast amount of literature on irrigation scheduling but little literature takes scientific information the next step by preparing practical guidelines for smallholder farmers. There is a large and widening gap between the state of the art irrigation scheduling tools and current on-farm irrigation practices. Most farmers find current irrigation scheduling tools overwhelming and lack the means and skills to install and operate them. It is suggested that farmers need simple, cheap and more comprehensive support tools to achieve improved irrigation management at the farm level. Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) developed the Drip Planner Chart (DPC) to provide smallholder farmers with a simple tool to schedule drip irrigation to the crops?? needs. DPC is a manual disk calculator to calculate daily irrigation requirement. Farmers?? feedback was the basis for developing the DPC. Using DPC over a three-year period in Spain resulted in a 14 % water saving and improved irrigation timing. Trials at smallholder farmer fields in Nepal and Zambia showed DPC advice is more adapted to the changing demands of the crop over the different growth stages and responds to the farmer??s quest for practical drip scheduling advice. This paper presents the Drip Planner Chart and the scientific validation of the accuracy of the DPC. Experiments on farmers?? fields show water saving in Nepal and improved yield in Zambia. In both countries an improved scheduling over the growing seasons was found using DPC.     

Optimizing supplemental irrigation: Tradeoffs between profitability and sustainability

Water production functions are used to model yield response to various levels of supplemental irrigation (SI), to assess water productivity coefficients, and to identify optimum irrigation under various input-output price scenarios. The SI production function is taken as the difference between the total water production function (irrigation + rain) and that of rainwater. Theoretical analysis of the unconstrained objective function shows that the seasonal depth of SI to maximize profit occurs when the marginal product of water equals the ratio of unit water cost to unit product sale price. Applying this analysis to wheat in northern Syria, the production functions of SI under different rainfall conditions are developed. Coupled with current and projected water costs and wheat sale prices, the functions are used to develop an easy-to-use chart for determining seasonal irrigation rates to maximize profit under a range of seasonal rainfall amounts.Results show that, for a given seasonal rainfall, there is a critical value for the ratio of irrigation cost to production price beyond which SI becomes less profitable than rainfed production. Higher product prices and lower irrigation costs encourage the use of more water. Policies supporting high wheat prices and low irrigation costs encourage maximizing yields but with low water productivity. The resulting farmer practice threatens the sustainability of water resources. Balancing profitability versus sustainability is a challenge for policy makers. Our analysis can help national and local water authorities and policy makers determine appropriate policies for water valuation and allocation; and assist extension services and farmers in planning irrigation infrastructure and farm water management.     

Estimating the impacts of water pricing on smallholder irrigators in North West Province, South Africa

Worldwide growing water scarcity has increased the call for economic instruments to stimulate rational water use in agriculture. Furthermore, cost-recovery is now widely accepted as a cornerstone of sustainable water management. In many developing countries, where agricultural water use is often still subsidised, water pricing policies are developed for allocating water efficiently and achieving sustainability of water systems. However, the impacts of water pricing policies on irrigation water use and on farm production systems is mostly unknown. We introduce an innovative two-stage methodology that allows estimating these effects at farm level. Applying the method to small-scale irrigators in South Africa, we show that water demand is quite responsive even to small changes in water price. In addition, the introduction of a water price significantly decreases farm profit. This appears to be a problem primarily for the poorer farmers.     

Implementing irrigation: Water balances and irrigation quality in the Lerma basin (Spain)

The growing necessity to develop more productive agriculture has encouraged the expansion of new irrigated lands. However, water use in agriculture may affect the natural regimes of water systems. This study aims to analyze, for the first time, water use and its dynamics during the creation of a newly irrigated land. Water use was studied through the development of water balances and subsequent application of quality indices for irrigation in two unirrigated years (2004–2005) and three years of gradual implementation of irrigation (2006, 2007 and 2008) in the Lerma basin (752 ha, Spain). Increases in evapotranspiration, drainage and water content in the aquifer were verified during the gradual transformation into irrigated land. Water balances closed adequately, giving consistency to the results and enabling the application of quality indices for irrigation. Irrigation quality analysis showed a use of available water resources equal to 84%. However, the estimated irrigation efficiency presented lower values, mainly due to irrigation drainage (15%) and combined losses by both evaporation and wind drift of sprinkler irrigation systems (13%). The results indicate that the use of water in the Lerma basin is at the same management level of other modern irrigation systems in the Ebro basin, although there is still margin for improvement in irrigation management, such as reducing the irrigation drainage fraction and the evaporation and wind drift losses of sprinkler irrigation systems.