Abstract
Reducing agricultural water use is an inevitable choice to alleviate water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions, and high-efficiency irrigation technologies provide conditions for water conservation. However, without unified water resources management policy to redistribute the saved agricultural water, farmers’ behavior will lead to water rebound and large-scale expansion of cultivated areas, especially on the edge of oasis regions. To solve these issues and promote the sustainable development of water resources, it makes sense to explore the impact of unified water resources management policy from the perspective of farmers’ behavior. This study takes the typical irrigation zone in the Heihe River Basin as a case to discuss the response of farmers’ economic behavior to transferring irrigation water and restricting land reclamation, i.e., the unified water resources management policy with the technical efficiency of crop irrigation improved based on the bio-economic model. The results show that in the case of loosening land constraints, farmers will reuse all the saved water for agricultural production by reclaiming unused land or increasing the area of water-intensive crops (vegetables). Although the policy of restricting land reclamation can restrict land expansion, it cannot avoid water rebound caused by adjusting the crop-planting structure. Farmers’ land-expansion behavior can be largely restricted by transferring the saved irrigation water to non-agricultural sectors in irrigation zones with inadequate water, but to contain land-expansion behavior in irrigation zones with surplus water, the policy of restricting land reclamation must be implemented simultaneously. The study also reveals that farmers will choose to grow more cash crops (seed maize, vegetables, tomato, seed watermelon, potato, and rapeseed) and fewer food crops (wheat, maize) to increase the profit per unit of water in the scenario of loosening land constraints or transferring agricultural water. Furthermore, the study indicates that farmers’ economic income can be decreased or at least not increased with the transfer of agricultural water. Both benefit compensation from non-agricultural sectors and increased non-agricultural income can compensate farmers’ economic loss. Therefore, it is necessary to improve water rights trading systems and increase employment opportunities for surplus agricultural labor to promote economic development in rural areas.
Highlights
Agriculture is the largest water user in many parts of the world with low water use efficiency [1]
The shadow price of main resources derived from the bio-economic model (BEM) model can reflect the scarcity of main resources and explain changes in farmers’ economic behavior (Table 8)
The results reveal that water resources are the key constraint on agricultural production, and transferring the saved agricultural water will have a significant impact on farmers’ economic behavior in the GDPIZ, Ganzhou Yingke irrigation zone in the PIZ (GYPIZ), and Minle Yimin irrigation zone in the MIZ (MYMIZ)
Summary
Agriculture is the largest water user in many parts of the world with low water use efficiency [1] This is true in arid and semi-arid regions of China, where oasis agriculture is the leading industry. Studies show that high-efficiency irrigation technologies can improve agricultural water use efficiency and provide the prerequisite for saving agricultural water [4]. Farmers’ behaviors, driven by pursuing the maximum profit, such as expanding cropland area, increasing irrigation water per acre and growing water-intensive crops [5,6,7], lead to the reuse of the agricultural water saved by high-efficiency irrigation technologies in the large-scale expansion of agricultural production [8]. Farmers’ economic behavior reduces the effectiveness of policies and destroys the eco-environment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
