Economics of Alternative Crop Production in Arid Regions
2009
Curtis, Kynda R. | Bishop, Carol | Harris, Thomas R.
As water resources in arid regions decline, agricultural producers are encouragedto adopt water conserving strategies. The implementation of alternative low-water usecrops is one option, but is it economically feasible? Data on current and alternative cropsfor this study include enterprise budgets, producer interviews, and field trials inNorthwestern Nevada, USA. We use WinEPIC, a Windows-based version of the EPICmodel, which synthesizes both agronomics and economics, to model yields and returns ofalternative crop production under differing irrigation levels. Risk analysis or thedistribution of net returns to alternative crop production is also examined. This studydetermined that there are alternative crops that could be feasibly substituted for alfalfaand reduce water use by at least one-half while providing net returns that meet or exceedreturns from alfalfa and keep producers profitable in agriculture
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