The effect of prior appropriation water rights on land‐allocation decisions in irrigated agriculture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Cobourn ◽  
Xinde Ji ◽  
Siân Mooney ◽  
Neil F. Crescenti
Keyword(s):  
Water Rights ◽  
Land Allocation ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Allocation Decisions

scholarly journals Challenges and Opportunities for Water of the Rio Grande

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Edward Rister ◽  
Allen W. Sturdivant ◽  
Ronald D. Lacewell ◽  
Ari M. Michelsen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
The United States ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Interstate Compacts

The Rio Grande has headwaters in Colorado, flows through New Mexico, and serves as the United States-Mexico border in Texas, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Snow melt in Colorado and northern New Mexico constitutes the water river supply for New Mexico and the El Paso region, whereas summer monsoonal flow from the Rio Conchos in Mexico and tributaries, including the Pecos River, provides the Rio Grande flow for southern Texas. The region is mostly semiarid with frequent long-term drought periods but is also characterized by a substantial irrigated agriculture sector and a rapidly growing population. International treaties and interstate compacts provide the rules for allocation of Rio Grande waters between the United States and Mexico and among Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Water rights in Texas have been adjudicated, but the adjudication process was based on a wet period; hence, contemporary Rio Grande water rights are overallocated. Issues related to the waters of the Rio Grande include frequent drought, increased municipal demand caused by a rapidly increasing population, supply variability, underdeliveries from Mexico, increasing salinity, inefficient delivery systems, health issues of the population, no economic/financial incentives for farmers to conserve, and water is not typically priced for efficiency. Stakeholders are interested in identifying solutions to limited water supplies while there is increasing demand. There are several activities in place addressing Rio Grande-related water needs, including enhancing delivery distribution efficiency of raw water, conversion of rights from agriculture to urban, improving both agricultural irrigation field distribution and urban use efficiency, developments in desalination, and litigation. None of the solutions are easy or inexpensive, but there are encouraging cooperative attitudes between stakeholders.

Farmers' land allocation responses to the soybean rejuvenation plan: evidence from “typical farm” in Jilin, China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijuan Guo ◽  
Xinye Lv ◽  
Xiangdong Hu
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Production Efficiency ◽  
Programming Model ◽  
Land Allocation ◽  
Baseline Scenario ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Allocation Decisions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the impact of the soybean rejuvenation plan and the subsidy on farmers' land allocation decisions, which may reference policy adjustment from a micro perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a multi-objective optimized programming model on farm-level, which simulated the land-use changes, as well as the resulting changes in benefits of the rational “typical farm”. The simulation scenarios include changes in subsidy policy and production efficiency, and the baseline scenario was the production status in 2018.FindingsThe results show that an increase in soybean producer subsidy will encourage farmers to allocate more land for soybean planting, which can be considered as a policy tool in promoting soybean production in China. Besides, the effect of subsidy in adjusting soybean acreage for farms is further affected by external conditions such as production technology (such as breeding technology, pesticide and fertilizer application efficiency). Meanwhile, large-scale farms show more significant land adjustments when facing changes in policies and external conditions.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is to simulate the effects of soybean policy and subsidy change on farmers' land-allocation decisions through a multi-objective farmer decision-making model, which provides a micro perspective to understand the implementation effect of the soybean revitalization plan.

Water Markets, Environmental Flows, and Adaptation to Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 01 (03) ◽  
pp. 1550016
Author(s):  
Tiho Ancev
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Environmental Water ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change

The possibility of climate change and the effects it will have on global and regional hydrology opens up serious questions about how the affected sectors of the economy and the water-dependent environmental assets can best adapt to the new, harsher climatic conditions. One of the possible approaches toward securing environmental water flows is to hold water rights on behalf of the public, and manage those rights for environmental purposes. This type of policy has been in effect in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, where the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) now has some 20% of all water rights in the basin. Thus far, the use of these water rights has been almost exclusively for environmental purposes, besides the calls for some of the allocations on these water rights to be sold to irrigators. This paper examines whether a change in policy that will allow a more flexible trading behavior of the CEWH so that it can be an active participant in the market for water allocations can help with adaptation to climate change from environmental management perspective, as well as from the perspective of irrigated agriculture industry. This objective is pursued by analyzing the effects of likely hydrological variations under climate change. Key parameters that are taken into account are expected water availability, and the variability in water availability. The discourse is framed within the concept of optimal allocation of water resources so as to maximize overall social benefit from water use. The results indicate that active participation of the CEWH in the water market leads to superior outcomes in terms of both greater overall social benefit, and greater quantity of water being available for environmental purposes under climate change. The key policy implication is that trading rules for CEWH should be relaxed, especially under the projected climate change scenarios.

scholarly journals Too Hot to Handle: Climate Change and Agricultural Water Use

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Denise Fort
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Water ◽  
Agricultural Water Use ◽  
The Status ◽  
Water Uses

The world faces enormous challenges in responding to looming crises in food and water. Responding to this challenge will require flexibility; such flexibility may be impeded by legal institutions. This paper looks at the western United States and discusses the role of irrigated agriculture in that region. Because of climate change, a growing population, declining groundwater, the need to protect ecosystems and other conflicts, the author suggests that all water uses, including long-standing agricultural water rights, need to be examined in light of these changes. Legal systems have tended to serve the status quo, but perhaps the law can help facilitate this re-examination.

scholarly journals Climate change, water rights, and water supply: The case of irrigated agriculture in Idaho

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 9675-9695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenchao Xu ◽  
Scott E. Lowe ◽  
Richard M. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture

Perceptions about switchgrass and land allocation decisions: Evidence from a farmer survey in Missouri

2021 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 105615
Author(s):  
Pralhad Burli ◽  
Pankaj Lal ◽  
Bernabas Wolde ◽  
Shibu Jose ◽  
Sougata Bardhan
Keyword(s):  
Land Allocation ◽  
Farmer Survey ◽  
Allocation Decisions

scholarly journals Coupling biophysical processes and water rights to simulate spatially distributed water use in an intensively managed hydrologic system

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 3671-3685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bangshuai Han ◽  
Shawn G. Benner ◽  
John P. Bolte ◽  
Kellie B. Vache ◽  
Alejandro N. Flores
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Water Diversion ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Intensively Managed

Abstract. Humans have significantly altered the redistribution of water in intensively managed hydrologic systems, shifting the spatiotemporal patterns of surface water. Evaluating water availability requires integration of hydrologic processes and associated human influences. In this study, we summarize the development and evaluation of an extensible hydrologic model that explicitly integrates water rights to spatially distribute irrigation waters in a semi-arid agricultural region in the western US, using the Envision integrated modeling platform. The model captures both human and biophysical systems, particularly the diversion of water from the Boise River, which is the main water source that supports irrigated agriculture in this region. In agricultural areas, water demand is estimated as a function of crop type and local environmental conditions. Surface water to meet crop demand is diverted from the stream reaches, constrained by the amount of water available in the stream, the water-rights-appropriated amount, and the priority dates associated with particular places of use. Results, measured by flow rates at gaged stream and canal locations within the study area, suggest that the impacts of irrigation activities on the magnitude and timing of flows through this intensively managed system are well captured. The multi-year averaged diverted water from the Boise River matches observations well, reflecting the appropriation of water according to the water rights database. Because of the spatially explicit implementation of surface water diversion, the model can help diagnose places and times where water resources are likely insufficient to meet agricultural water demands, and inform future water management decisions.

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