An integrated analysis of the effects of local water institutions on irrigated agriculture outcomes in the arid western United States

Irrigation water rights and their governance structures constitute the foundation of local water institutions and profoundly influence water resource allocations, irrigated agricultural productivity and other consumptive water uses in the arid climate zones. This article explores the regional structures of irrigation water rights and water governance and empirically analyses the priority effects of water rights on irrigated agriculture at the micro level in Idaho, an arid and semiarid state in the western United States. We integrate a unique data set of water rights and water supplies with agricultural features and environmental characteristics into our empirical analysis. Results indicate that seniority in water resources allocation has significant, positive effects on both the average crop revenue and crop water use efficiency. Local water rights structures differ significantly in seniority and water sources from region to region. In response to the heterogeneity in local water rights structures, the aforementioned effect of allocative priority of water rights on average crop revenue per hectare and crop water productivity varies significantly, reaching up to an 87% difference, when measured across regions. In addition, the priority effects of water rights are nonlinear, which reflects the influence of historical patterns of water rights establishment on water institutions to date.     

试论水权转让过程中农民用水权益的保护

我国水资源严重短缺的基本国情使农村的供水与用水的矛盾越来越突出,加上城市和工业对水的需求日益扩大,农业水权的转让逐渐成为一种趋势。在农业水权转让的过程中,农民用水权益的保护成为了亟须重视的问题。目前我国农业水权转让制度不健全,使农业水权在向其他领域转让过程中出现了损害农民用水权益的现象。因而,分析农业水权在转让过程中对农民用水权益的影响因素,从而提出保护对策,为完善农民用水权益保障机制提供基础。     

个体认知、权威决策与中国农地制度变迁——一个动态演化博弈模型的构建及检验

超越"强制性-诱致性变迁"二分法,构建动态制度变迁模型是制度经济学研究的前沿和难题。本文初步构建了一个以个体和权威为主体,包含制度变迁成本的动态演化博弈模型,并以中国农地制度变迁历程中的两个典型案例进行实证检验。研究表明,权威决策是正式规则的主要来源,个体共同认知则是非正式约束的主要来源,二者共同决定了制度变迁的方向;制度变迁成本是重要的激励约束因素,制度变迁的速度则取决于制度变迁成本与个体认知、权威决策三者的一致性程度,一个高效、有序的制度变迁过程应尽量避免三者的背离和冲突。因此,政府主导进行的农地制度改革应特别关注农民认知,尊重农民意愿;对具有高变迁成本的制度变迁采取渐进改革的方式,适时建立过渡性的制度安排,并在改革的速度与质量之间做好权衡,以减少改革阻力,提高改革效率。     

Coherence,Causality, and Effectiveness of the EU Environmental Policy System: Results of Complementary Statistical and Econometric Analyses

The spatial differentiation of input-based pollution fees should in theory decrease compliance costs in the case of nitrate pollution of water bodies from agriculture because both the damage and the compliance costs vary over space. However, the empirical evidence in the literature does not agree on the extent of the potential savings from differentiation. We address this issue in the case of France, using a mathematical programming model of agricultural supply (AROPAj). The modeling approach used accounts for the spatial diversity of nitrate pollution and the heterogeneity of farming systems. Our results reveal the efficiency gains from differentiating pollution fees among polluters and water bodies. For instance, firm-specific and water body-specific taxes represent respectively 5.8 and 32.5 % of farmers’ gross margin in terms of compliance costs, whereas a uniform policy at the river-basin district or national level leads to major economic losses and abandonment of the agricultural activity. These results stem from the lower tax rates faced by farmers in less polluted areas, for scenarios based on spatial differentiation. Our estimates suggest that realistic regulation via input-based pollution fees should be differentiated in order to significantly reduce the financial burden on farmers of conforming to predefined pollution levels. Some potential adverse effects related to input-based taxation and land use change call for additional fine-scale nitrogen pollution regulation (e.g. limitations on crop switching).     

Basin impacts of irrigation water conservation policy

Climate change, uncertain future water supplies, growing population, and increased water demands continue to raise the importance of finding cost-effective water conservation measures. Irrigated agriculture is the world's largest water user, so governments, donor organizations, water suppliers, and farmers continue to look for measures that would produce more crop per drop. Despite the importance of promoting water conservation in agriculture, little work has been done that integrates hydrologic, economic, institutional, and policy dimensions of water conservation. This paper presents an integrated basin scale analysis of water conservation subsidies for irrigated agriculture. A dynamic, nonlinear programming model is developed and applied for the Upper Rio Grande Basin of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, USA. Several potential public subsidies of drip irrigation are analyzed for their economic and hydrologic impacts at both the farm and basin levels. Results indicate that water conservation subsidies for drip irrigation produce several effects. These include greater on-farm implementation of water-conserving technology, less water applied to crops, more water consumed by crops, increased farm income, greater crop production, more land irrigated, and increased total water-related economic benefits for the basin. Findings provide a framework for designing and implementing water conservation policies for irrigated agriculture.     

中日土地制度、非农兼业和城乡收入均衡的比较与启示

自耕农所有制是日本农地制度的基础,它所赋予的农民对土地的充分权利调动了他们的积极性,有效地提高了农业生产率,保证了日本粮食和各种农产品的充裕的供给;同时增加了农民的农业收入。日本工业,尤其是农村工业的迅速发展,促进了农民非农兼业收入的较快增长。农业收入和兼业收入的相互补充使日本农家收入在20世纪70年代以后达到或略超过城市家庭,实现了城乡收入均衡。在我国致力于缩小城乡收入差距、建设和谐社会的今天,日本经验值得我们借鉴。     

CHANGES IN WATER ALLOCATION MECHANISMS FOR CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE

Existing institutions allocating water in California reflect prior appropriation water rights established when water was abundant. These allocation rules queue users and do not encourage water conservation. Increased water scarcity and growing valuation of water's environmental benefits are inducing a transition to water allocation mechanisms that increase water efficiency in agriculture. Transferable rights systems will lead to market-like water allocation, induce farmers to adopt water conservation technology, and may not face strong objection from senior water rights holders. One must weigh the efficiency gains associated with transition from water rights to water markets against the transaction costs associated with installing facilities that enable water exchange and trading .
Transition to water markets may preserve the agricultural sector's well-being while allowing the transfer of some water outside of agriculture—in particular, for environmental benefit. The cost of policies proposed to reduce agricultural water supply while encouraging water trading are inversely related to the extent of trading allowed. The more farmers trade water, the less costly reducing water supply is to agriculture. Policies reducing water supply to Central Valley Project contractors and allowing trading only among these contractors are much more expensive than are policies encouraging trading among all agricultural water users in California .     

基于基尼系数的耕地保有量分配优化模型

为了确保粮食安全,我国政府强调18亿亩耕地红线坚决不能突破,但未提出耕地保有量在各个地区如何进行公平分配。针对此问题,借鉴基尼系数,构建我国耕地保有量公平分配的优化模型。以2010年各省（市、自治区）的耕地保有量公平分配为例,利用各地区现有耕地面积数据,选取各地区人口、二三产业产值、粮食产量、农用地面积、水资源总量、≥10℃年积温、太阳辐射作为指标,结合各地区粮食自给率与后备耕地资源,构建基于基尼系数的耕地保有量分配优化模型,利用Lingo软件求出模型最优解并结合GIS技术绘制各地区耕地面积增减比例图。根据优化后耕地面积增减量占现有耕地面积的比例,我国各地区耕地面积需要调整情况可以分为五类：耕地削减区、耕地保持区、耕地小幅度增加区、耕地中幅度增加区、耕地大幅度增加区。结论表明,基于基尼系数的耕地保有量分配结果既公平又可行,可为耕地保护提供借鉴。     

农民权利配置与收入增长关系研究

农民权利配置在促进农民收入增长的同时,也存在着制约农民收入增长的情况。本文力图明晰农民收入增长中权利配置的主要问题及产生原因,找到解决对策。本文首先对农民权利配置与农民收入关系做了理论及描述性分析,进一步实证分析了1994-2011年农民权利配置与农民收入增长的关系。结果表明：长期以来,国家配置为主的配置方式,与国家支农支出、农地流转比例、农用机械总动力有关的权利配置和其对农民收入增长影响系数的匹配不当,收益权配置为主的配置偏好共同导致农民权利配置效率偏低,影响到农民收入增速长期低于GDP增速。本文建议控制直接补贴规模,加大农业科技投入,适度控制农地流转的比例及速度,引导农民开设家庭农场,扶持专业化农业生产,从而提高农民权利配置效率,有效促进农民收入增长。     

西南地区农村投资水平和农地利用效率对农民农业收入影响分析——以重庆市为例

农民农业增收是一项系统工程,运用多种计量经济分析模型,探讨农村投资水平、农地利用效率对农民农业收入的影响。结果表明:长期来看,农村投资水平、农地综合效率、农地纯技术效率、农地规模效率与农民农业收入存在稳定的正向均衡关系,其中,农地综合效率的贡献度远高于农村投资水平,农地规模效率的贡献度高于农地纯技术效率;短期内,农村投资水平对收入的调整为正向,农地纯技术效率对收入的调整先负后正,农地规模效率对收入的调整先正后负。长期来看,加大农村投资力度,提高农地综合效率、技术效率及规模效率均有利于促进农业收入增长,但关键是要提高农地规模效率。短期内,加大农村投资力度同样有利于农业收入增长,而提高农地纯技术效率则使农业收入增长先降后升,在规模报酬递减范围内的农地规模效率的提高,也有利于农民农业收入增长。     

Economywide impacts of climate change on agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Two possible adaptation scenarios to climate change for Sub-Saharan Africa are analyzed under the SRES B2 scenario. The first scenario doubles the irrigated area in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, compared to the baseline, but keeps total crop area constant. The second scenario increases both rainfed and irrigated crop yields by 25% for all Sub-Saharan African countries. The two adaptation scenarios are analyzed with IMPACT, a partial equilibrium agricultural sector model combined with a water simulation module, and with GTAP-W, a general equilibrium model including water resources. The methodology combines the advantages of a partial equilibrium approach, which considers detailed water-agriculture linkages, with a general equilibrium approach, which takes into account linkages between agriculture and nonagricultural sectors and includes a full treatment of factor markets. The efficacy of the two scenarios as adaptation measures to cope with climate change is discussed. Due to the limited initial irrigated area in the region, an increase in agricultural productivity achieves better outcomes than an expansion of irrigated area. Even though Sub-Saharan Africa is not a key contributor to global food production (rainfed, irrigated or total), both scenarios help lower world food prices, stimulating national and international food markets.     

Water allocation,crop choice,and priority services

We analyze the problem of allocating irrigation water among heterogeneous farmers when water supply is stochastic. If farmers are risk-neutral, a spot market for water is efficient; while the oft-used uniform rationing system is inefficient, both ex ante and ex post. Indeed, we show that it leads farmers to overexpose to risk, thus making shortages more severe and more frequent in case of drought. We propose instead a regulation by priority classes extending Wilson, and we derive an efficiency result. We characterize the set of farmers that would win or lose from such a reform. We also argue that a system of priority classes may be preferred to a spot market system, because scarcity is easier to manage ex ante than ex post, and because this system facilitates the supply of insurance to risk-averse agents.     

坚持农地集体所有的思考

本文在系统梳理中国农村改革历程的基础上,指出改革初期,为了满足农民的温饱诉求,党和政府逐渐认同了农民推出的“大包干”做法;温饱问题解决之后,为了满足农民外出从事非农就业的诉求,党和政府赋予农民自主流转其承包土地经营权的权利;现在,为了满足农民享有土地财产权益的诉求,党和政府应赋予农民土地股份的权利,将农村集体土地产权按份共有的改革目标落到实处。股权是集体经济的基础。改革初期以含义模糊的承包权替代含义清晰的土地股权,是为了达成改革共识;现在以含义清晰的土地股权替代含义模糊的土地承包权,是改革深化和认识与时俱进的结果。     

Does the transfer of farmland use rights increase farmers’ long-term intention to work in cities?

This study investigates how the transfer of rural land contract management rights in China has influenced the choice of rural workers to work in cities in the long run. Using data from the Rural Household Survey and Migrant Household Survey from the China Household Income Project in 2007, 2008 and 2013, we find that rural land transfers and the subsequent human capital effect are found to play important roles in farmers’ decision to give up agricultural work and relocate to work in urban areas. Our findings indicate that the Chinese government should accelerate the implementation of policies that promote the separation of ownership rights, contracting rights and management rights of contracted land and continuously improve the rural land property rights system.     

Self-Selecting Agri-environmental Policieswith an Application to the Don Watershed

We consider a model of regulation for nonpoint source water pollution through non-linear taxation/subsidization of agricultural production. Farmers are heterogenous along two dimensions, their ability to transform inputs into final production and the available area they possess. Asymmetric information and participation of farmers to the regulation scheme put constraints on the optimal policy that we characterize. We show that a positive relationship between size of land and ability may exacerbate adverse selection effects. We calibrate the model using data on a French watershed and we simulate the optimal second-best policy and characterize the allocation of the abatement effort among the producers.Authorship is equally assigned among the different authors.     

Marketising the commons in Africa: the case of Ghana

The recent surge in the marketisation of the commons in Africa – especially of water bodies – warrants careful political economic analysis. Three questions remain intractable: (1) Were there markets in the beginning? If so, how have they transformed and if not, how did markets arise and transform over the years? (2) what are the outcomes of such markets for people, their livelihoods, and their environment? And (3) how to interpret the outcomes of water markets and whether water should be commodified at all. For new institutional economists, water markets have arisen because of the inferior nature of Indigenous or customary systems which are incapable of offering precisely what water markets offer Africa: economic and ecological fortunes. Using an institutional political economy approach and drawing on experiences in Ghana, the paper investigates the social history of marketisation of the commons and probes the effects of marketisation in terms of absolute, relative, and differential/congruent outcomes as well as the opportunity cost of the current water property rights regime. The empirical evidence shows that markets have been socially created through imposed and directed policies. Some jobs have been created through investment, but such employment is not unique to marketisation and private investment. Indeed, the private model of property rights has worsened the distribution of water resources not only within different property relations in Africa but also between diverse property relations. Water markets have been responsible for much displacement and trouble not only for communities but also nature. Overall, there is no necessary congruence between the promises made by new institutional economists and how communities experience water markets. Tighter regulations for the use of inland and transboundary water sources might temporarily halt the displacement of communities sparked by marketisation of the commons, but only one fundamental change can guarantee community well-being: to regard the access to and community control of water as constitutionally sanctioned human rights and as res communis.     

Climate change impacts on irrigation water requirements: Effects of mitigation, 1990–2080

Potential changes in global and regional agricultural water demand for irrigation were investigated within a new socio-economic scenario, A2r, developed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) with and without climate change, with and without mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Water deficits of crops were developed with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)–IIASA Agro-ecological Zone model, based on daily water balances at 0.5° latitude × 0.5° longitude and then aggregated to regions and the globe. Future regional and global irrigation water requirements were computed as a function of both projected irrigated land and climate change and simulations were performed from 1990 to 2080. Future trends for extents of irrigated land, irrigation water use, and withdrawals were computed, with specific attention given to the implications of climate change mitigation. Renewable water-resource availability was estimated under current and future climate conditions. Results suggest that mitigation of climate change may have significant positive effects compared with unmitigated climate change. Specifically, mitigation reduced the impacts of climate change on agricultural water requirements by about 40%, or 125–160 billion m³ (Gm³) compared with unmitigated climate. Simple estimates of future changes in irrigation efficiency and water costs suggest that by 2080 mitigation may translate into annual cost reductions of about 10 billion US$.     

不同规模农户农业生产效率差异及影响因素研究——基于DEA-Tobit模型的实证分析

文章基于小麦主产区4个省份946个不同规模农户的调查数据,利用DEA模型和Tobit回归模型分析了小农户和家庭农场农业生产效率的影响机制。结果表明:家庭农场的农业生产效率明显高于小农户的农业生产效率,家庭农场的生产效率与经营规模呈倒"U"型变化特征;在影响因素方面,土地肥沃程度与农业技术指导对小农户和家庭农场的农业生产效率均有显著正向影响;家庭农场更倾向于通过提高受教育程度和增加单块耕地面积来提升农业生产效率;而小农户的农业生产效率对农户年龄和农户从事农作物种植年限呈现出较强的依赖性。基于此,建议有针对性地加大农业技术指导,适度扩大农业生产经营规模,加强小农户与新型农业经营主体之间的合作与联合,促进农业生产向高质量发展。     

新疆农村土地流转模式的博弈分析

新疆“十二五”规划纲要提出,加快土地流转是实现农牧业现代化的根本途径.从制度变迁的角度分析,当前主要有两种土地流转模式,即以政府为主体实施的强制性土地流转模式和农户自发进行的诱致性土地流转模式.本文运用博弈模型对两种模式进行分析,并结合新疆典型的两种土地流转模式,即大泉湾乡模式和玛纳新模式,提出新疆应建立强制性与诱致性相结合的“政府＋合作社”土地流转模式.     

政府主导下的土地流转路径模型——一个动态博弈的视角

本文通过建立一个政府土地政策制定与农民土地流转决策的两期动态博弈模型,先后探讨了在平均分配土地的配给规则以及最大化农业劳动人口的土地配给规则下的土地流转路径,并比较了两种配给规则下土地流转速率的大小,得出土地流转的根本原因是农民劳动能力不同以及政府行为前后不一致,从而揭示了影响土地流转速率的内在机制:农民的劳动能力存在差异,为土地流转提供了可能,政府因此可以制定使农民激励相容的土地政策,推动土地整合集中到劳动能力高的农民手中;非农工资水平、农业补贴等外部因素对土地流转的影响主要体现在土地收敛速率上,并不改变土地流转的方向和最终均衡结果。在此引入劳动力市场冲击之后,本文提出了以产量甄别农民劳动能力的方法,改进政府进行农业定向采购的方式。