I costi operativi per la distribuzione dell’acqua a scopo irriguo. Un’analisi empirica con una forma funzionale flessibile
Author(s)
Giraldo, Luca
Date Issued
March 30, 2010
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
In agriculture the water is often a limiting factor and subject to frequent and important periods of scarcity, which encourages strong competition for its use even among different sectors, both industrial and urban areas. Using the principle that the family use of water should take precedence over the production, Public Administrations tend to rationalize the agricultural use, through consortia for the management of water sources. However, there is still a strong need to adjust the management of water resources for irrigation purposes, in pursuit of economic objectives and policy dealing with waste minimization and allocation efficiency. The management of water resources is made even more relevant and topical by recent observations and theories on global climate change, which envisage future scenarios with an increasing scarcity of water, accompanied by changes in the variability of atmospheric events that underlie the availability.
A first and important difficulty arises from the use of the concept of regulatory efficiency, considering cost recovery. The study of the costs associated with the use of water resources in agriculture is therefore interesting to better understand in what direction we should push the water management policy for the achievement of EU objectives and, more generally, the goals of sustainable economic efficiency.
For a correct and conscious management of water resources is necessary to analyze the economic aspects related to irrigation service supply, in order to understand the effects that certain actions will have on the benefits associated with such service. The thesis focuses on understanding of these aspects of water supply for irrigation purposes.
In order to carry this study on, the area served by a consortium of drainage and irrigation in Sardinia has been examined. This choice can be considered interesting, since the irrigation water distribution systems and pricing methods adopted by this consortium are among the most practiced in Italy and the Mediterranean. Therefore, the characteristics of this area allow us to extend the conclusions of the work for more general interpretations. Through a detailed reconstruction of the distribution technologies and the economic and technical aspects, the data for constructing a model of the operational costs of the irrigation distribution have been produced. The work of data collection has made it clear that the reality of the consortium irrigation is very varied and diverse.
In this regard, it should not be overlooked that over the years the facilities have operated consortium of restructuring, both organizationally and technically. It is therefore desirable to understand how these renovations have changed the economies and efficiencies of irrigation consortia and how much space can still exist for further improvement of these conditions. Within the same area, in fact, very different structures for irrigation water distribution coexist, and are the result of the variable and heterogeneous modernization process throughout the various irrigation districts.
The methodological approach used is based on the transcendental logarithmic (Translog) cost function, already widely used in other areas of applied economics, particularly when analyzing and evaluating the efficiency of technological progress. In this work 7 econometric models were developed, with 3 different degrees of detail in the specification of the technology . This differentiation is helpful in understanding how certain distinctive features of different water distribution systems can be taken into account in the irrigation water pricing policies.
There is still a strong need to balance the management of water resources for irrigation purposes, in pursuit of economic objectives and policy dealing with waste minimization and allocation efficiency. It is seen that the volume of water supplied is in fact inadequate to describe the operational costs: the distribution of volumes of water onto land is relevant when it is accounted for considering also the land on which it is distributed.
This is easily understandable, because the structures used in the distribution have also costs for activation and continued operation that are more related to their size rather than their operational level. When the water is distributed by gravity, network losses appear, due to technological and organizational needs, which reach even 30% of the water distributed in the channels. These losses do not take any economic value, except perhaps when the water must be pumped over low hills. This is relevant for the management of irrigation service, when we want to adjust the externalities of waste water generated by the consortium through the pricing.
The results also shows a substantial under use of the distribution facilities that generate the fixed costs of delivery. So it is important to specify that the implementation of full cost recovery required by current legislation determines that, in some circumstances, farmers are paying the inefficiencies of the systems that manage the water services.
Certainly, the mere knowledge of supply costs is incomplete to adopt a proper system of charging. The study of operating costs has nevertheless made a significant contribution to knowledge on the functioning of the consortia of reclamation and irrigation, and the results obtained allow to make some considerations on the indications for pricing introduced by the WFD.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Economia e territorio
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