Measuring drought based on a CGE model with multi-regional irrigation water

Abstract

There have been many droughts in China that have caused severe losses. Previous studies evaluating droughts were from meteorological and hydrological perspectives. We measure the Chinese drought of 2000 based on a static computable general equilibrium model of China's macroeconomy, which describes the relationships between drought, agricultural production, and rural households' welfare from an economic perspective. In the model, the irrigation water inputs of the 16 regions of China are estimated and combined with the same regions' cropland inputs. Thus, the drought is simulated as an external impact by reducing the productivity of different crops in different regions. The reductions in 10 crop outputs and the rural households' welfare, total consumption and food consumption from 16 regions are more severe than those from a perfect market reaction. The findings herein are also distinct in that the five rural households that suffer most as a result of drought are from southern areas. The results provide an available reference for the Chinese government's decision on what measures to take to prevent drought and its impacts. The model can be further improved by incorporating meteorological and hydrological models to identify droughts using more accurate indexes.