Optimisation of water use for food production in arid and semi-arid regions : a case study of Libya

ABSTRACT Water scarcity is a fundamental problem in Libya and most parts of the world. Water shortages are often due to problems of uneven distribution and the management of existing water supplies I 11 11 I ~ i in Libya that could be improved. Such studies are not common in Libya's agricultural areas, where most of the economic analyses focus on either domestic or household water demand. The current study attempts to determine the economic value of water to sustain agricultural production by eliciting farmers' willingness to pay for water use under improved water supplies by using choice experiment modelling and explores the potential for water conservation through water-demand management. The multinomial probit model is employed in order to relax the assumption that all farmers have the same preferences for the attributes being valued, which is usually required in empirical choice experiment studies. Farmers included in this study, who largely depend on groundwater, were asked for their preferences on the payment for water use. " Farmers' socioeconomics such as age, education, farm income, farm ownership, water scarcity, irrigated area, water consumption and cost of water pumping have significant influences on farmers' willingness to pay for water use in the agricultural sector. Choice modelling allows estimating the relative importance of these socioeconomics for differences of the studied farmers, and ultimately provides a measure of the willingness to pay for different aspects of water attributes, including the pricing of water for agricultural uses. The estimated value of willingness to pay for using water in agriculture is 0.36 LD/m3, which represents 12 % of the annual farm income. For farmers' willingness to pay estimates, the comparison between costs of farmers pumping water and governmental water supply, found that willingness to pay estimate appear to be a reasonable amount, where this value is lower than the governmental cost of supplied water xv Optimization of Water Use for Food Production and higher than cost of pumping water. The majority of surveyed farmers (61.75 %) reacted positively stating that the in prices of water might enhance in the water use efficacy. Also, the positive view of farmer's perception about pricing of water is one of the important factors that positively influence the willingness to pay. Based on these empirical findings, the study advocates water pricing policy in the agricultural sector in order to enhance the efficiency and promote sustainability in water use for agricultural production in Libya. xvi.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo