Insuring water: a practical risk management option in water-scarce and drought-prone regions?

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Dionisio Pérez Blanco ◽  
Carlos Mario Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Risk Premium ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Insurance System ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Water Scarce ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Drought Insurance

Recurrent water deficits in various arid and semi-arid Mediterranean basins are largely covered by illegal groundwater abstractions uncontrolled by the water authorities. Aquifers thus play the role of buffer stocks and are used by farmers as a reliable, although informal, insurance system. This has led to continuous groundwater depletion and increased scarcity and drought risk over the last few decades. An effective solution to this problem requires the replacement of this spontaneous, informal and uncoordinated insurance scheme with a formal and planned system that can be coordinated with the objective of reducing overexploitation. In this paper we develop a methodology to estimate the fair risk premium and the potential water savings associated with drought insurance for irrigated agriculture. This method is illustrated with its application to the Campo de Cartagena Agricultural District in the Segura River Basin (Spain). Results show that although the potential for illegal abstractions is high (9.5 hm3/year), the cost of the insurance system is ten times lower than the amount that risk-averse farmers are willing to pay for water security. This information may serve as the starting point for the design of a drought insurance system able to cope with other relevant institutional challenges.

The Influence of Narratives on Negotiations and Resolution of the Upper Jordan River Conflict

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Zeitoun ◽  
Michael Talhami ◽  
Karim Eid-Sabbagh
Keyword(s):  
Water Security ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Jordan River ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Environmental Narratives ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Colonial Archives ◽  
The Cost

Abstract This article tests the assertion that narratives constructed around international environmental issues serve to promote or reduce opportunities for their resolution. It does this by interpreting the influence of Lebanese and Israeli environmental narratives on resolution of and indirect negotiations over the Upper Jordan River conflict. Colonial archives, key informant interviews and academic and policy literature serve to identify and critically investigate the narratives. An official Lebanese narrative of adherence to international law is found to contradict the more popular nationalist narrative of Israeli ‘theft’ of the flows. An Israeli water security discourse is found to be built on earlier narratives that have long held water (and the Upper Jordan flows in particular) as both a physically scarce and strategic commodity necessary for continued existence of the Israeli state. Basic discourse, security studies and negotiation theory is developed to gauge the influence of the narratives during the 2002 informal negotiations over the Wazzani pumping station dispute. The more influential Israeli discourse is found to establish the starting point (no discussion on re-allocation of the flows) and process of the informal negotiations. The narratives are found to open or shut windows for resolution of the conflict, by politicizing or securitizing ideas about the flows, respectively. The conflict management approach favored by US and EU mediators is seen to align with the more dominant discourse, at the cost of enduring asymmetry and tensions, and missed opportunities for both resolution of the conflict and promotion of fair water-sharing norms.

scholarly journals Dealing with drought in irrigated agriculture through insurance schemes: an application to an irrigation district in Southern Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. e0106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Ruiz ◽  
María Bielza ◽  
Alberto Garrido ◽  
Ana Iglesias
Keyword(s):  
Time Series Data ◽  
Hydrological Drought ◽  
Southern Spain ◽  
Irrigation District ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Insurance Premiums ◽  
Drought Insurance

<p class="Abstract">Hydrological drought is expected to have an increasing impact on both crop and fruit yields in arid and semi-arid regions. Some existing crop insurance schemes provide coverage against water deficits in rain-fed agriculture. The Prevented Planting Program in the USA covers against drought for irrigated agriculture. However, drought insurance for irrigated agriculture is still a challenge for companies and institutions because of the complexity of the design and implementation of this type of insurance. Few studies have attempted to evaluate the risk of loss due to irrigation water scarcity using both stand-alone production functions and crop simulation models. This paper’s contributions are that it evaluates the suitability of AquaCrop for calculating drought insurance premiums for irrigated agriculture and that it discusses contract conditions and insurance design for hydrological drought risk coverage as part of a traditional insurance product, with on-field loss assessment in combination with a trigger index. This method was applied to an irrigation district in southern Spain. Our insurance premium calculation showed that it is feasible to apply this method provided that its data requirements are met, such as a large enough set of reliable small-scale yield and irrigation time series data, especially soil data, to calibrate AquaCrop. The choice of a trigger index should not be underestimated because it proved to have a decisive influence on insurance premiums and indemnities. Our discussion of the contract conditions shows that hydrological drought insurance must comply with a series of constraints in order to avoid moral hazard and basis risk.</p>

scholarly journals An in-depth evaluation of personal barriers to technology adoption in irrigated agriculture in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 003072702098694
Author(s):  
Marlene de Witt ◽  
Willem Petrus de Clercq ◽  
Francisco José Blanco Velazquez ◽  
Filiberto Altobelli ◽  
Anna Dalla Marta
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Water Use ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Free Service ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Water Scarce

Increasing pressure on water resources is driving the development of technology to improve water-use efficiency in irrigation. Uptake of these technological advances are essential to ensure long-term water security in catchments, particularly in water-scarce regions and where agricultural activities and urban centres compete for the same resources. Research suggests that uptake of technology lags far behind the development of new products. The study presented in this paper interviewed 29 commercial farmers from the water-scarce Central Breede River Valley in South Africa to investigate their reasons behind the use or non-use of irrigation technology for scheduling, and in particular the uptake of a free, government-funded remote-sensing service called FruitLook. Evaluating the uptake of a free service eliminates monetary cost as one key barrier to uptake. In-depth interviews revealed a high uptake of technology (83%), but use of only one type – soil water measurement. Among the farmers that use water-use efficiency technology, 78% use the same probe service provider. Perceived accuracy and ease of use, as well as personalised after-sales service are the key reasons for this probe’s popularity. While 86% of the farmers have heard about FruitLook, only one farmer uses it for irrigation purposes. The non-use of the free service can mainly be attributed to the time cost associated with the product’s initial set-up, use, and interpretation of information. The study revealed that the integration of information from various products is essential for farmers – too much information in different formats is too time-costly. Developers of new technology should focus on these latter two findings to improve the likelihood of new product uptake.

The Mismatch between Expectations and Realities of AS4 Audits: A Post-Implementation Research Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaz Aghazadeh ◽  
Marietta Peytcheva
Keyword(s):  
Implementation Research ◽  
Risk Premium ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Multiple Methods ◽  
Material Weakness ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Auditing Standards ◽  
Equilibrium Market ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Research Analysis

SUMMARY We conduct a post-implementation research analysis of AS4, a standard guiding voluntary audits of material weakness (MW) remediation disclosures, to understand the reasons for the scarcity of AS4 audits in practice. We use multiple methods (experiments, comment letter analysis, and surveys) to understand the perspectives of key stakeholders. We find that regulators' expectations of the use of the standard did not come to fruition because an equilibrium market for active use of the standard could not be achieved; that managers desire to engage in AS4 audits for the riskier MWs but do not expect the associated costs to be high; and that auditors are reluctant to audit riskier MWs and would charge a considerable risk premium. Finally, we find that investors value AS4 audits, especially for riskier MWs, and find value in an AS4 audit for those risky MWs beyond that of the year-end audit. The overall findings of our study indicate that a mismatch in the cost-benefit functions of the key stakeholders led to a lack of AS4 audits. Our findings are important given the high costs associated with auditing standards development and approval.

Food and Water Security in West Asia

2018 ◽  
pp. 512-529
Author(s):  
Eckart Woertz
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Trade Surplus ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Water Scarce ◽  
Policy Solutions

West Asia is one of the most water-scarce regions of the world and one of its foremost importers of virtual water despite sustained efforts at self-sufficiency, especially in cereal production. Technology-oriented policy solutions eye a reorientation of agriculture towards fruit and vegetables that are less water-intensive than cereals and provide more value added per water unit consumed. Turkey is a role model here; the country has an agricultural trade surplus and ranks among the top ten agricultural economies globally in value terms. Yet technology-oriented policy prescriptions overlook the sociopolitical ‘problemsheds’ that emerge (along with new agro-lobbies) and agriculture as the main water consumer has to compete with other economic sectors and sprawling urbanization. This article looks at the different categories of countries and their specific challenges.

Wells for welfare or illfare? Cost of groundwater depletion in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Palanisami ◽  
A. Vidhyavathi ◽  
C. R. Ranganathan
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Cropping Pattern ◽  
Watershed Development ◽  
Groundwater Overdraft ◽  
Well Spacing ◽  
Coimbatore District ◽  
Tamil Nadu State ◽  
The Cost

Groundwater depletion is experienced in several districts of Tamil Nadu state and Coimbatore district is heading in that direction. The average well failure rate is 47% for open wells and 9% for bore wells. The total cost of depletion for new wells varies from Rs 1,999 per ha to Rs 90,975 per ha. The electricity subsidy to the farmers has varied from Rs 22,621 per ha for coconut growers to Rs 25,498 per ha for banana growers as on 2004. The cost of irrigation per cubic metre (m3) is less on large farms. The average net return with free electricity varies from Rs 0.14 per m3 to Rs 1.38 per m3 and is drastically reduced when electricity is priced at an economic cost, i.e. Rs −1.15 to Rs −0.14 per m3. The shift in cropping pattern towards high value crops helped the farmers to some extent to bear the cost of externalities arising out of depletion. The social cost caused by groundwater overdraft is about Rs 554.3 million, which may increase when the well density increases further. Suggested policy options are to change the cropping pattern to less water-consuming crops, to invest in watershed development activities, to change inefficient pumpsets and to adopt well spacing norms.

scholarly journals Regional Impact of Urban Water Use on Irrigated Agriculture

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Lee ◽  
Ronald D. Lacewell ◽  
Teofilo Ozuna ◽  
Lonnie L. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Linear Programming ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Irrigation Level ◽  
Regional Impacts ◽  
Urban Water Use ◽  
Reduced Water

AbstractLinear programming and regional input-output models were applied to estimate the impacts of increased pumping costs for irrigated agriculture due to groundwater depletion principally caused by the expanding urban area of San Antonio, Texas. A biophysical simulator was used to estimate linear programming coefficients of crop yield by irrigation level and timing. The results indicate significant local (county) economic impacts from groundwater mining but insignificant regional impacts. A major improvement in irrigation efficiency would be required to offset the increased pumping costs and reduced water availability associated with increased lifts due to urban expansion.

An International Campaign for Agricultural and Livestock Genomics (CALG)

2002 ◽  
Vol 06 (24) ◽  
pp. 958-965
Author(s):  
Jun Yu ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Huanming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Environmental Biology ◽  
Cdna Sequences ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Technology Innovations ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Cost

A coordinated international effort to sequence agricultural and livestock genomes has come to its time. While human genome and genomes of many model organisms (related to human health and basic biological interests) have been sequenced or plugged in the sequencing pipelines, agronomically important crop and livestock genomes have not been given high enough priority. Although we are facing many challenges in policy-making, grant funding, regional task emphasis, research community consensus and technology innovations, many initiatives are being announced and formulated based on the cost-effective and large-scale sequencing procedure, known as whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing that produces draft sequences covering a genome from 95 percent to 99 percent. Identified genes from such draft sequences, coupled with other resources, such as molecular markers, large-insert clones and cDNA sequences, provide ample information and tools to further our knowledge in agricultural and environmental biology in the genome era that just comes to its accelerated period. If the campaign succeeds, molecular biologists, geneticists and field biologists from all countries, rich or poor, would be brought to the same starting point and expect another astronomical increase of basic genomic information, ready to convert effectively into knowledge that will ultimately change our lives and environment into a greater and better future. We call upon national and international governmental agencies and organizations as well as research foundations to support this unprecedented movement.

Preliminary design of precast, segmental box-girder bridges using optimization

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-128
Author(s):  
Craig J. Miller ◽  
Juarez Accioly
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Preliminary Design ◽  
Box Girder Bridges ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Box Girder ◽  
Prestressing Steel ◽  
Girder Bridges ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Final Design ◽  
The Cost

Precast, prestressed segmental box-girder bridges are now accepted as an economical alternative for spans over 150 ft (46 m). Decisions about cross-sectional dimensions made during preliminary design can have a substantial influence on the final cost of the bridge. To help the designer obtain an economical starting point for a final design, a program was written to determine section dimensions and midspan and pier prestressing steel areas to give minimum cost. Since a preliminary design is obtained, the analysis techniques and design criteria have been simplified to reduce computation. The design produced by the program will satisfy AASHTO specification requirements and the recommendations of the PCI Bridge Committee. The optimization algorithm used is the generalized reduced gradient technique. To demonstrate the program capabilities, three example problems are discussed. The results indicate that optimum span-depth ratios are approximately 24 for the cost ratios used. The cost of the optimum design does not seem to be too sensitive to the ratio of concrete cost to prestressing steel cost.

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