Spatial dynamics of water management in irrigated agriculture

Irrigated agriculture provides 40% of worldwide food supplies but uses large amounts of scarce freshwater and contributes to environmental degradation. At the very core of this problem lie decisions made by irrigators subject to biophysical relations. This research develops a microeconomic model of irrigation management taking into account the dynamics of plant growth over the season, spatial variability in infiltration of applied irrigation water, and fundamental principles from subsurface hydrology. The analysis shows that spatial variability in water infiltration common to traditional irrigation systems increases both applied irrigation water and deep percolation flows by very substantial amounts compared to uniform infiltration. The analysis demonstrates that efficient irrigation management can significantly reduce both applied water and deep percolation at relatively low costs, at least up to a certain level. A long-run analysis of optimal irrigation systems including capital costs indicates that traditional furrow systems are economically efficient over a wide range of water prices and deep percolation costs. Overall, the results indicate that optimal irrigation management can achieve significant resource conservation and pollution control with low loss in agricultural net benefits and without land retirement, investment in capital-intensive systems, or crop switching.