REFORM OF IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT AND INVESTMENT POLICY IN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

This paper examines the reform of water and irrigation management in Africa and compares it with similar reforms in Asia. Several things are evident from the review. First, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is at an earlier stage of irrigation development and reform than Asia. Second, the articulated need for reform is much stronger in Asia than it is in SSA. Third, the productivity of small-scale irrigated farms is significantly lower in SSA compared to Asia. Thus any irrigation investment strategy in SSA should be different from Asia and focus on increasing small-farm productivity as well as small-scale irrigation projects. Finally, all direct government irrigation investments should be done jointly with decisions regarding the type of project management.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

REFORM OF IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT AND INVESTMENT POLICY IN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

This paper examines the reform of water and irrigation management in Africa and compares it with similar reforms in Asia. Several things are evident from the review. First, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is at an earlier stage of irrigation development and reform than Asia. Second, the articulated need for reform is much stronger in Asia than it is in SSA. Third, the productivity of small-scale irrigated farms is significantly lower in SSA compared to Asia. Thus any irrigation investment strategy in SSA should be different from Asia and focus on increasing small-farm productivity as well as small-scale irrigation projects. Finally, all direct government irrigation investments should be done jointly with decisions regarding the type of project management.International Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Fishermen Willingness to Participate in an Insurance Program in Oman

This study is based on a survey of 210 fishermen in Oman to investigate their willingness to pay (WTP) for and enroll in an insurance scheme. The survey was designed to evaluate fishermen’s willingness to adopt a safety measures program. Most fishermen showed a low level of prudence except for community controlled measures. Actually, 82% of fishermen fish in groups rather than individually, 98% inform their families about the site where they are going to fish, and 76% listen to the weather forecast before leaving. A linear and a Logit model were used in this study. Results from the linear model show that virtually all the socioeconomic, boat characteristics, attitudinal, and wealth variables are important in explaining the amount of the insurance premium the fishermen are willing to pay for; however, only a few variables were significant in the Logit model. Overall, 52% of the respondents indicated WTP for insurance, which is a clear indication that the demand for insurance is substantial. The estimated annual insurance premium varies between Rials Omani (RO) 23.13 and RO 29.25, depending on whether it is a voluntary or legally required. WTP is estimated at RO 18.7.Small-scale fishery, safety equipment, econometric modeling, insurance premium, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, Risk and Uncertainty, Q22, H41,

La contaminación agraria difusa del regadío: algunas reflexiones

El presente trabajo trata de los inconvenientes de llevar a cabo el enfoque preventivo para la lucha contra la contaminación agraria difusa del regadío. La necesidad de evaluar los costes y beneficios así como los impactos ambientales dentro del contexto de la cuenca de un río es puesto de relieve ya que muchos de los impactos generados en una zona afectarán a otras situadas en la misma cuenca. La necesidad de utilizar de una manera más eficiente el recurso agua resulta de primera urgencia. A medida que se aumenta la eficiencia del riego la contaminación por nitrógeno, fertilizantes y elementos tóxicos se ve reducida. Sin embargo, esta reducción no resulta suficiente para preservar el medio ambiente. Para llegar a una agricultura sostenible hace falta el uso de mecanismos para incentivar y/o penalizar a los agricultores con el fin de lograr las metas ambientales que se fijen

Using economic incentives and regulations to reduce seawater intrusion in the Batinah coastal area of Oman

Excessive groundwater abstraction is a major problem in Oman, primarily in the Batinah coastal area where it results in seawater intrusion. The Government began to address the problem in the 1990s by encouraging the use of more efficient irrigation systems, replacing date palms with winter vegetable crops and using treated wastewater for municipal irrigation. However, 15 years later, seawater intrusion in the Batinah aquifers is still advancing at an alarming pace. This paper analyses the relative merits of strategies to control groundwater pumping based on water quotas, electricity quotas and electricity pricing. A cost benefit approach is used to evaluate the feasibility of three strategies over a period of 25 years and to compare them to the "business as usual" option. Results show that the net present loss to the community when no active policy is implemented amounts to (-$288) million. Imposing water quotas on tubewells would give a net present benefit of$153 million. However, such quotas would give the lowest present benefit and create inequity among farmers. Other possible approaches would be to control the pumping of groundwater from all wells - tubewells and dug wells - by enforcing energy quotas and by increasing the price of electricity used to pump water. The net present benefits would be greater and the costs to farmers would be more fairly spread. The results of cost-benefit analysis show that enforcing an electricity quota, coupled with removal of the subsidy on the electricity price, is the easiest and most equitable solution to implement.

Smart Water Management Using Intelligent Digital Twins

Providing and distributing fresh water to large communities is a major global concern. In addition to its scarcity as well as to its wastage, this vital resource is being affected by challenging environmental conditions. New approaches are, therefore, urgently needed for an optimized, fair, and efficient use of fresh water. The adoption of emergent technologies is giving high hopes to reach this objective. Among these technologies, digital twin is attracting increasing attention from the academic and industrial committees. This attention is particularly motivated by its expected values to any sector, including process optimization, cost reduction, and time to market shortening. In the specific field of water management, several solutions are being proposed, especially to detect leak detection and test water assets under a variety of working constraints. These solutions are still lacking intelligence and autonomy throughout the loop of data acquisition and processing as well as asset control and service generation and delivery. To this end, we are proposing in this paper a new framework based on multi-agent systems and DT paradigm to close gaps within this loop. Our multi-agent system is responsible of running data analytics mechanisms in order to assess water consumption and generate relevant feedbacks to users using, among others, a rewarding system to select the appropriate pricing policies. It is also responsible of simulating asset operations under specific working constraints for the purpose of failure and/or defect detection

Welfare consequences of water supply alternatives in rural Tunisia

Many economic studies have addressed the issue of inefficiency of public water supply in rural areas and the potential for improved service by private companies. Many of these analyses focused on identifying either willingness to pay or comparing average service costs and prices paid by customers. This paper performs a welfare analysis of two water supply systemspublic and self owned-in rural Tunisia. The paper calculates consumer and producer surplus and compares the performance of the two systems from a social point of view. Results suggest that both systems are inefficient, mainly because of a production level that is low compared with production capacity. © 2002 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved