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Irrigation water pricing: differential impacts on irrigated farms
Author(s) -
GómezLimón Jose A.,
Riesgo Laura
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2004.tb00221.x
Subject(s) - water pricing , water framework directive , agriculture , differential (mechanical device) , irrigation , consumption (sociology) , water resource management , irrigated agriculture , water use , agricultural economics , common agricultural policy , environmental science , natural resource economics , water conservation , environmental economics , economics , water quality , geography , engineering , ecology , social science , archaeology , aerospace engineering , sociology , biology
European water policy, as set out in the Water Framework Directive (WFD), requires all EU Member States to implement volumetric water pricing at rates that roughly cover the total costs of providing water services. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology that, for the different types of farm in an irrigable area, will enable us to analyse the differential impact that a pricing policy for irrigation water would have. For this purpose, Multi‐Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) mathematical programming models were used. The methodology is implemented on a representative area in the Duero Valley in Spain. Our results show the usefulness of differential analysis in evaluating the impact of a water pricing policy. This allows significant differences in the evolution of agricultural incomes to be observed, as well as the recovery of costs by the State, demand for agricultural employment and the consumption of agrochemicals resulting from rising prices of irrigation water in various groups of farmers within a given irrigated area.