Declining agricultural production in rapidly urbanizing semi-arid regions: policy tradeoffs and sustainability indicators

• Published in: Environmental research letters 2017-08, Vol.12 (8), p.85005
• Main Authors: Dozier, André Q, Arabi, Mazdak, Wostoupal, Benjamin C, Goemans, Christopher G, Zhang, Yao, Paustian, Keith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural production; agriculture; Alternative farming; Arid regions; Arid zones; buy and dry; Conservation; Crop production; Economics; hydroeconomic; Indicators; Land use; Municipal water; Municipalities; partial equilibrium modeling; Policies; Population growth; Profitability; Profits; Semi arid areas; Semiarid lands; Sustainability; urban; Water conservation; Water consumption; Water rights
• ISSN: 1748-9326; 1748-9326
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aa7287

In rapidly urbanizing semi-arid regions, increasing amounts of historically irrigated cropland lies permanently fallowed due to water court policies as agricultural water rights are voluntarily being sold to growing cities. This study develops an integrative framework for assessing the effects of population growth and land use change on agricultural production and evaluating viability of alternative management strategies, including alternative agricultural transfer methods, regional water ownership restrictions, and urban conservation. A partial equilibrium model of a spatially-diverse regional water rights market is built in application of the framework to an exemplary basin. The model represents agricultural producers as profit-maximizing suppliers and municipalities as cost-minimizing consumers of water rights. Results indicate that selling an agricultural water right today is worth up to two times more than 40 years of continued production. All alternative policies that sustain agricultural cropland and crop production decrease total agricultural profitability by diminishing water rights sales revenue, but in doing so, they also decrease municipal water acquisition costs. Defining good indicators and incorporating adequate spatial and temporal detail are critical to properly analyzing policy impacts. To best improve agricultural profit from production and sale of crops, short-term solutions include alternative agricultural transfer methods while long-term solutions incorporate urban conservation.