Improving irrigation water allocation efficiency: Analysis of alternative policy options in Egypt and Morocco
Abstract
Water scarcity is a growing problem world wide. Economists uniformly suggest water pricing to improve water use efficiency; however, governments tend to reject that advice due to political risk, and economic and cultural concerns. This dissertation addresses questions of what policy alternatives to water pricing could be used to improve irrigation water allocation efficiency. It provides an empirical framework with which to compare alternative irrigation polices for allocating limited water to agricultural production in Egypt and Morocco. The Agricultural Sector Model of Egypt (ASME) and the Agricultural Sector Model of Morocco (ASMM) were employed for policy tests. Both are partial equilibrium models in which consumer and producer surplus from agricultural based commodities is maximized subject to various resource, technical, and policy constraints. Positive Mathematical Programming (PMP) was used for model calibration, which renders the models more suitable for doing policy analysis. Three policy options were tested: water pricing, water complementary input factor taxes, and output taxes. The research results for Egypt are: (1) irrigation water demand in Egypt is inelastic; (2) N-fertilizer tax policy, energy tax policy, and output tax policy at certain rates can be alternatives to water pricing policy to decrease the planted area of water intensive and low market value crops; and (3) both input factor tax and output tax policy can be alternatives to water pricing to generate revenue for government. The results for Morocco are: (1) water demand is responsive to water pricing policy; (2) output taxes can be an alternative to water pricing at the cost recovery level; (3) energy taxes may not be a good mechanism to reduce water demand until it is very high; and (4) both energy taxes and output taxes can generate comparable revenues to the revenue generated from water pricing at cost recovery level. Policy implications based on key findings are summarized to provide policy makers a reference for their irrigation policy consideration. Limitations of the model are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Tyner, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agricultural economics
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.