1- Department of Agricultural Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
2- Department of Agricultural Economics, Tehran University, Karaj, Islamic Republic of Iran.
3- Department of Economics and Finance, Saint Martin’S University, United States of America
Abstract: (6242 Views)
Due to increasing demand for the scarce available water throughout the world it is an
extremely important matter, in water management, to make serious attempts in
determining its true economic value. This paper discusses the optimal allocation of water
to agriculture, the relatively true economic value of water as well as the cropping patterns
for the Shirvan Barzo (SB) dam area in North Khorasan Province of Iran. The analysis is
based on linear programming (LP) and on multi goal linear programming (MGLP)
models for determining solutions that can maximize net return to farmers. In the study,
the priority of goals is developmental, social, economical, and environmental respectively.
The results indicated that optimizing the cropping patterns along with proper the
allocation of irrigation water has yet substantial potential to increase the net return from
agriculture. It has already decreased the applied water as much as 19 percent. The results
show that the economic value of each unit of agricultural water is estimated to be between
107 to 1296 IRR×104 per cubic meter. This suggests managing the allocation of water
based on optimal models and bring water prices close to its true economic value to
motivate the farmers to economize in the applied water.
Received: 2011/02/5 | Accepted: 2011/02/5 | Published: 2011/02/5