TitleCrop-specific irrigation choices for major crops on the West Coast: Water scarcity and climatic determinants.
Publication TypePresentation
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsOlen, B, Wu, JJ, Langpap, C

Recent climate change forecasts have aroused growing interest in the influence of climate and water scarcity on agricultural production and irrigation practice. However, it is common in the economic literature to aggregate disparate crops when modeling irrigation choices. That approach confounds the crop-specific effects of climate and water scarcity that govern such choices. This paper addresses the impact of climate and water scarcity on irrigation choices through estimated models of cropland proportion irrigated (PI), and crop-specific irrigation technology choice (TC) and water application rates (AR). This approach is applied to agricultural production data for major crops (orchard/vineyard, vegetable, wheat, alfalfa, hay, and pasture) on the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington). Implications for agricultural water policy and how irrigators would respond and adapt to future climate change are discussed.