IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ragrxx/v51y2012i4p129-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The marginal product value of irrigation water for potato and vine cultivation in the Sandveld region, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • W.J. de Lange
  • B.K. Mahumani

Abstract

The advent of grid electrification in the Sandveld region of South Africa in the 1980s increased the utilisation of groundwater resources for commercial irrigation purposes. In the wake of the consequent increased pressure on the resource, it behooves landowners to use water more productively and responsibly. This paper calculated the marginal product value (MPV) of irrigation water for potatoes and vine production in this region to assess and to allow the comparison of the productivity of irrigation water with other commodities and regions. However, the results suggested that the scope for leveraging changes to water use behaviour in the Sandveld solely through water pricing is limited. Given that electricity is a critical input for the utilization of groundwater, we suspect that the price of electricity would be a suitable lever to influence irrigation behaviour. In light of the imminent Government electricity price hikes, we advise some further investigation on the impacts these impending hikes will have on irrigation farming in the study area. We suspect that pumping costs (as opposed to the price of water itself) will become the most limiting factor for irrigation water use in the Sandveld in the foreseeable future. A mixture of water and energy pricing strategies therefore lends itself as a more pragmatic policy approach to follow in order to influence irrigation behaviour, as opposed to a sole focus on water pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • W.J. de Lange & B.K. Mahumani, 2012. "The marginal product value of irrigation water for potato and vine cultivation in the Sandveld region, South Africa," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 129-143, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ragrxx:v:51:y:2012:i:4:p:129-143
    DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2012.741209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03031853.2012.741209
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03031853.2012.741209?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Glenn-Marie Lange & Rashid Hassan, 2006. "The Economics of Water Management in Southern Africa," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3174.
    2. Tsegai, Daniel W. & Linz, Teresa & Kloos, Julia, 2009. "Economic analysis of water supply cost structure in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa," Discussion Papers 49926, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muchara, B. & Ortmann, G. & Mudhara, M. & Wale, E., 2016. "Irrigation water value for potato farmers in the Mooi River Irrigation Scheme of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A residual value approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 164(P2), pages 243-252.
    2. Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha & Berg, Sanford, 2012. "A meta-regression analysis of benchmarking studies on water utilities market structure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 40-49.
    3. Njiraini, Georgina W. & Thiam, Djiby Racine & Muchapondwa, Edwin, 2016. "Implications of water policy reforms on water use efficiency and quality in South Africa: The Olifants river basin," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246440, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    4. Sahlén, Linda, 2008. "The Impacts of Food- and Oil Price Shocks on the Namibian Economy: the Role of Water Scarcity," Umeå Economic Studies 758, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    5. Kloos, Julia & Tsegai, Daniel W., 2009. "Preferences for domestic water services in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa," Discussion Papers 49970, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    6. Linz, Teresa & Tsegai, Daniel W., 2009. "Industrial Water Demand analysis in the Middle Olifants sub-basin of South Africa: The case of Mining," Discussion Papers 49927, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    7. Sahlén, Linda, 2009. "Essays on Environmental and Development Economics - Public Policy, Resource Prices and Global Warming," Umeå Economic Studies 762, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    8. Angella, Namyenya, 2014. "Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Irrigation Water: The Case of Doho Rice Irrigation Scheme in Eastern Uganda," Research Theses 243462, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    9. Saal David S. & Arocena Pablo & Maziotis Alexandros & Triebs Thomas, 2013. "Scale and Scope Economies and the Efficient Vertical and Horizontal Configuration of the Water Industry: A Survey of the Literature," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 93-129, March.
    10. Gezahegn, T.W. & Maertens, M., 2018. "Economic Incentives for Collective Action in Agriculture: Evidence from Agricultural Co-operatives in Tigray, North Ethiopia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277137, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Jones, Kelly W. & Mayer, Alex & Von Thaden, Juan & Berry, Z. Carter & López-Ramírez, Sergio & Salcone, Jacob & Manson, Robert H. & Asbjornsen, Heidi, 2020. "Measuring the net benefits of payments for hydrological services programs in Mexico," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    12. Lange, Glenn-Marie & Mungatana, Eric & Hassan, Rashid, 2007. "Water accounting for the Orange River Basin: An economic perspective on managing a transboundary resource," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 660-670, March.
    13. Yokwe, Stanley, 2009. "Water productivity in smallholder irrigation schemes in South Africa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(8), pages 1223-1228, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ragrxx:v:51:y:2012:i:4:p:129-143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ragr20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.