Towards more sustainable irrigation: factors influencing allocation and entitlement prices and demand in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District of Australia

Date

2010

Authors

Shanahan, M.P.
Wheeler, S.
Bjornlund, H.

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Bjornlund, H.

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Book chapter

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Incentives and instruments for sustainable irrigation, 2010 / Bjornlund, H. (ed./s), Ch.7, pp.91-105

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M.P. Shanahan, S. Wheeler & H. Bjornlund

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Abstract

For well over a decade, water markets have been used in Australia to reallocate water to more efficient, productive and sustainable irrigators. In the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District, records have been kept since 1992, and trading in both water allocations (seasonal trading) and water entitlements (permanent trading) is permitted, This chapter discusses the published quantitative estimates of farmers' responses to changes in prices, focusing particularly on two periods of drought (2002-03 and post 2006). Changes in the farmers' demand and supply of water during drought provide insights into their behaviour in the future when it is anticipated water will be increasingly scarce. We conclude that we can predict some of the likely effects, and the likely sustainability of farm production, in a future with less available water for farm production, by learning from the responses of farmers to past periods of scarcity.

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© WIT Press 2010

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