Vol. 085: Nabulsi, Asem: Socio-Economic Impacts of Water Availability and Prices on Farming Systems

Water for irrigation is a central element of agriculture in the Jordan Valley. Its availability and the individual farming systems' access to this scarce factor decides on the success of production as well as on the therefrom depending living standard of farming families. This book tries to answer the question about consequences for and potential reactions of the different types of farming systems in the realm of the Jordan Water Authority (JVA), i.e. Jordan's executive body for water distribution in the Jordan Valley, to changes in water supply.
Analyses of data from a stratified random sample of 141 families revealed four major classes of farming systems with significant differences in major characteristics of resource endowment, economic success and the role of agriculture in families' economic activities. The collected information allowed for the socio-economic description of the farming systems and the set-up of models for the calculation of expectable future impacts from changes in water supply. 
The model-based impact analyses focused on the most probable future developments, which include decreasing water availability in the Northern part of the Valley, increasing water availability due to rising quantities of recycled water in the Southern part and changes in water prices due to the rising competition for water from other sectors of the economy. Results indicate amongst others that decreasing water quantities in the north would engender a nearly linear decrease in family incomes for about 66% of the farming systems. Increasing water quantities in the south would help to augment family incomes in particular for farming systems from the class with lowest incomes. Rising water prices would affect the family income in all farming systems, whereby families from the class with lowest income would have to bear the strongest consequences, but would not lead to a reduction of the area under cultivation.
The results advocate the distinguished consideration of impacts from changes in the water situation according to the specific situation of families and farming systems in the Jordan Valley.

Dear customer! You can use our contact form to order a free pdf version of this title.
Please quote author name and volume number.