Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T22:02:03.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spatially correlated rainfall in a protective irrigation system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2006

JOHANNUS A. JANMAAT
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Acadia University, Main Street, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 2R6.

Abstract

Allowing water to be traded in an irrigation system with de facto riparian rights can increase the efficiency of water use. With irrigation supplementing uncertain rainfall, both supply and demand for water are uncertain. When rainfall events are positively correlated, water supply and demand movements are negatively correlated, causing large price fluctuations. Using a stylized two crop, two region irrigation system, numerical integration over a bivariate rainfall distribution is used to demonstrate the impact of varying rainfall correlation on water price, expected returns, and return variability. A spot market for water captures the majority of the returns to water rights transfers, relative to a complete market. This spot market results in higher returns and reduced return volatility for farmers in the water deficit region, while farmers in the water surplus region see greater returns but also greater return volatility.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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.)