New Data for Representing Irrigated Agriculture in Economy-Wide Models

Abstract

We develop a framework to represent the production value and expansion potential of irrigated land within economy-wide models, providing integrated assessment capabilities for energy-land-water interactions. The scope to expand irrigated land is quantified through irrigable land supply curves for 126 water regions globally based on water availability and the annual costs of irrigation infrastructure. Upgrades in irrigation infrastructure include (1) increasing water storage, (2) improving conveyance efficiency, and (3) improving irrigation efficiency. The value of production on irrigated and rainfed cropland is computed at both a 5 arcminute by 5 arcminute level and for the 140 regions and eight crop sectors in Version 9 of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Data Base using estimates of production quantities and prices from the year 2000. This work facilitates the representation of endogenous investment in irrigation infrastructure and allows for a more rigorous exploration of the regional and global impacts of water availability on land use, energy production, and economic activity.JEL codes: Q11, Q15, Q25

The impact of water scarcity on food, bioenergy and deforestation

“…In this connection, Ledvina et al . () provide tools that allow users to modify the data and parameters used to estimate the irrigable land supply curves. Second, our analysis examined a specific shock that changed the quantity of water available for irrigation (due to a change in demand for other uses) under constant climate conditions.…”

“…A companion paper, Ledvina et al . (), presents a detailed description of the methods used to disaggregate crop land and estimate of irrigable land supply curves. Ledvina et al .…”

“…Ledvina et al . () also provide supplementary files that allow users to replicate (and modify) the build streams for these activities.…”

Back to the Future: A 25-year Retrospective on GTAP and the Shaping of a New Agenda

“…More recently the GTAP group has included more direct links to disaggregated land and water by river basin and added separate production functions for irrigated and rainfed crops (Taheripour, Hertel, and Liu (2013a), Taheripour, Hertel, and Liu (2013b), and Liu et al (2014)). Some recent work has attempted to create "irrigable land supply functions to augment the AGE framework, utilizing more resolved data from a global water resource model (Winchester et al (2016) and Ledvina et al (2017)). But there remain issues of how to represent readily competing uses of water within the economic model.…”

“…Possibilities to provide more water (through expansion of reservoirs or improvements in efficiency of water use or conveyance) are not well described. Winchester et al (2016) and Ledvina et al (2017) incorporate these indirectly in the irrigable land supply functions, but then there is no direct economic trade off in the economic model. Moving from data to modeling, the multiple uses and timing of water supply over the year, and the public provision and pricing provide a set of challenges.…”