Agricultural irrigation water price apportionment and sharing

Abstract

Studying the apportionment and sharing of agricultural water prices is necessary for clarifying the relationship between agricultural water price apportionment and government responsibility and ensuring the benign operation of irrigated areas. From the perspective of the versatility of irrigation water, irrigation benefits are classified as internal or external; the degree of benefit is measured using the proportion of irrigation water per cubic metre of internal and external benefits. This is used as an allocation coefficient to reasonably share prices based on farmers’ water price tolerance, build agricultural water price apportionment and sharing models, and calculate the range of water prices borne by farmers and the government in the Baojixia Irrigation District in the Shaanxi Province of China. Results showed that the apportionment coefficients of farmers and government were 0.85 and 0.15, respectively. For grain crops, the farmers' price range was 0.115–0.508 yuan/m3, while that of the government was 0.516–0.909 yuan/m3; for cash crops, these values were 0.566–3.009 and 0.154–0.458 yuan/m3, respectively. The results of this study support the formulation of agricultural water prices and provide a theoretical reference for reducing the water burden of farmers and promoting the high-quality development of the regional economy