The Choices of Irrigation Technologies in California

Abstract

This paper introduces an econometric technique to analyze the factors affecting the land shares of alternative irrigation technologies in agriculture. It estimates the likelihood of use of drip, sprinkler, and surface irrigation by fruit growers in the Central Valley of California. Higher water costs, the use of groundwater, the production of nuts, and location are found to increase the likelihood of using drip and sprinkler irrigation. The results are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of water price increases in inducing water conservation.

Protecting Watershed Ecosystems through Targeted Local Land Use Policies

“…In agriculture, it has been used to model farmers' land allocation decisions (Wu et al 2004), the choice of irrigation technologies (Caswell and Zilberman 1985), and the choice of alternative crop management practices (Wu and Babcock 1998).…”

Irrigation Technology Transitions in the Mid-plains States: Implications for Water Conservation/Water Quality Goals and Institutional Changes

“…Caswell & Zilberman (1985) used a multinomial logit model of three irrigation technology groups to demonstrate that water price policies could induce adoption of water-conserving irrigation technologies for perennial crop growers in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Caswell & Zilberman (1986) demonstrated theoretically the importance of field/soil characteristics (land quality) and well depth in the producer field-level irrigation technology decision.…”

Assessing the Potential Economic Viability of Precision Irrigation: A Theoretical Analysis and Pilot Empirical Evaluation

“…Climate conditions [7], the quality of land, soil water holding capacity (WHC) and orography [13][14][15] are addressed as the most important environmental factors conditioning the transition to MIT. In addition, subsidies [8,[16][17][18][19], water pricing [20][21][22][23], and enforcement and monitoring capacity [22,24] are regulatory factors that may further affect the transition to MIT.…”

“…In the following, we develop an analytical approach combining the findings of scholars who have contributed to the analysis of the development of modern irrigation techniques with those of studies on new information systems for irrigation [6,7,13,14,44]. Specifically, Miranowski [13] collected a number of studies highlighting the factors that condition the adoption of MIT and, based on this, he developed a methodology that up until recently has provided support a number of empirical applications [7,14].…”

“…Specifically, Miranowski [13] collected a number of studies highlighting the factors that condition the adoption of MIT and, based on this, he developed a methodology that up until recently has provided support a number of empirical applications [7,14]. According to the relevant literature [6], some of these factors seem also to hold for PI, in particular land quality.…”