Exploring the Potential of Groundwater Markets in Agriculture: Results of a Participatory Evaluation in Five French Case Studies

Abstract

We used a participatory foresight method for assessing if, and how, groundwater markets could be incorporated into local groundwater management policies. We propose an institutional setup adapted to the French water policy context, with a cap and trade scenario introducing groundwater markets in the agricultural sector between now and the 2035 horizon. Considering the local hydrogeological characteristics, we applied this method to five French groundwater basins, and then analyzed the public perception of our scenario by organizing 16 half-day workshops, involving a total of 44 institutional stakeholders and 80 farmers. Overall, almost half of the participants were opposed to the introduction of groundwater markets for various ethical, economic and technical reasons. Many of the preconditions for water trading are still far from being met, and major social and economic risks are anticipated. However, our results also suggest that there might be scope for developing groundwater markets compatible with French water policy at a local scale; the preconditions for this are that specific local hydrogeological and agricultural situations are taken into account, and that a participatory process is developed, involving institutional stakeholders and farmers.

Water Resources Allocation and Agriculture

“…In their view, water allocation reform should be (at least in part) based on other criteria, such as equity. These alternative views explain why certain (re)allocation mechanisms based on economics, notably markets, are rejected by users, which leads to inefficient allocations (Hérivaux et al, 2020). • Fourth, institutions have their own dynamics, and changing their trajectories is costly.…”

Groundwater Markets in South Asia: A Bibliometric Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Irrigation Development

“…• Maintain pumping database of the participant farmers. • Publish all trading activities periodically (Heard et al, 2021;Herivaux et al, 2019) using bulletin boards or social media or any other electronic platform. • Help the RWAs monitor water levels.…”

“…The latter is a constant threat to buyers (e.g., extreme weather events, pest attacks, aberrations in market conditions; Palanisami, 2009). Moreover, as water levels plummet, competition escalates among the buyers, accentuating the risks of social dissent and conflict among farming communities (Herivaux et al, 2019). Last but not least, water sellers may even start speculating by withholding water from productive use, thus creating artificial scarcity and a highly profitable market for water trade (Herivaux et al, 2019).…”

“…We systematically scan the relevant literature, coupling it with contextual analysis, to offer the RWAs a sense of farmers’ experiences around GWMs. Originally beginning with surface water, over time, ideas of water markets extended to groundwater as well (Brozović & Young, 2014; Lawson et al, 2010; Skurray et al, 2013) and have been widely reported from France (Herivaux et al, 2019), the USA (Heard et al, 2021), Portugal and Spain (Rinaudo et al, 2012). If properly ‘institutionalized’, then water trading can become a crisis mitigation tool for farmers in developing nations (Zuo et al, 2012).…”

Trends in Groundwater Levels in Alluvial Aquifers of the Murray–Darling Basin and Their Attributions

“…It is employed for managing groundwater resources as defined by the Basin Plan. The SDL areas are analogous to 'groundwater management units' used in groundwater management plans in other countries [26][27][28]. The contribution of our work lies in presenting a temporally and spatially consistent trend analysis for the main alluvial aquifers of the MDB in order to obtain a regional perspective of the status of the key groundwater resources of the basin.…”