Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T11:44:16.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agricultural water allocation efficiency in a developing country canal irrigation system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2017

Agha Ali Akram  and
Robert Mendelsohn
Agha Ali Akram
Affiliation:
Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Robert Mendelsohn
Affiliation:
Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is ample evidence that canal systems often fail to reach their design capacity. This study argues that inefficient allocation of water within canals is one cause. This study collects precise measures of farm-level water withdrawals using flow meters in a canal in Pakistan. These data reveal that farmers near the head of the canal get more canal water than farmers near the tail, even accounting for conveyance efficiency. The results suggest that improvements in canal water management would yield efficiency gains for the canal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , October 2017 , pp. 571 - 593
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ali, I. (1988), The Punjab under Imperialism 1885–1947, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bandaragoda, D.J. (1998), ‘Design and practice of water allocation rules: lessons from Warabandi in Pakistan's Punjab’, IIMI Research Report No. 17, International Irrigation Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Booker, J.F. and Young, R.A. (1994), ‘Modeling intrastate and interstate markets for Colorado River water resources’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 26: 66–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chakravorty, U. and Roumasset, J. (1991), ‘Efficient spatial allocation of irrigation water’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 73(1): 165–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurd, B.H and Harrod, M. (2001), ‘Water resources: economic analysis’, in Mendelsohn, R. (ed.), Global Warming and the American Economy: A Regional Analysis, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 106–131.Google Scholar
Hurd, B.H., Calloway, J.M., Smith, J.B., and Kirshen, P. (1999), ‘Economic effects of climate change on US water resources’, in Mendelsohn, R. and Neumann, J. (eds), The Impact of Climate Change on the United States Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 133–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IWMI (International Water Management Institute) (2014), ‘Recalibrating irrigation water rates’, Focus on Pakistan Policy Brief 3.Google Scholar
Lund, J.R., Zhu, T., Tanaka, S.K., and Jenkins, M.J. (2006), ‘Water resources impact’, in Smith, J. and Mendelsohn, R. (eds), The Impact of Climate Change on Regional Systems: A Comprehensive Analysis of California, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, pp. 165–187.Google Scholar
McKenzie, D. (2015), ‘Tools of the trade: a joint test of orthogonality when testing for balance’, Development Impact Blog, World Bank, [Avai- lable at] http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/tools-trade-joint-test- orthogonality-when-testing-balance.Google Scholar
Mukherji, A., Facon, T., De Fraiture, C., Molden, D., and Chartres, C. (2012), ‘Growing more food with less water: how can revitalizing Asia's irrigation help?’, Water Policy 14(3): 430–446.Google Scholar
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2013), Household Integrated Economic Survey 2011–12, Islamabad: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Qaddumi, H.M. (2005), ‘ Essays on efficient water allocation in the agriculture sector ’, PhD thesis, Yale University.Google Scholar
Seo, N. and Mendelsohn, R. (2008), ‘Climate change impacts on Latin American farmland values: the role of farm type’, Revista de Economia e Agronegocio 6: 159–176.Google Scholar
Tsur, Y. (1997), ‘The economics of conjunctive ground and surface water irrigation systems: basic principles and empirical evidence from Southern California’, in Parker, D. and Tsur, Y. (eds), Decentralization and Coordination of Water Resource Management, Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic, pp. 339–361.Google Scholar
Yu, W., Yang, Y.C.E., Savitsky, A., Alford, D., Brown, C., Wescoat, J., Debowicz, D., and Robinson, S. (2013), The Indus Basin of Pakistan: The Impacts of Climate Risks on Water and Agriculture, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Akram and Mendelsohn supplementary material

Appendix

Download Akram and Mendelsohn supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 2 MB