ABSTRACT:
Water price policy can be an effective resource management tool to promote water conservation by encouraging reductions in water consumption and the adoption of less water-intensive irrigation technologies. However, a farm's ability to adopt alternative irrigation technologies depends upon the unique attributes of the farm site. In particular, interaction between field attributes like soil permeability and field slope can reduce and limit the insolence of water price in promoting adoption of alternative irrigation technologies. This issue is examined using irrigation technology adoption data from California's Central Valley. Results suggest that while water prices are important to water use decisions, field-spe& attributes are more important to the adoption of water conserving irrigation systems.
Footnotes
Eric C. Schuck is assistant professor in the Department of agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University. Gareth P. Green is assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Finance, Seattle University.
- Copyright 2001 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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