LAND ALLOCATION, SOIL QUALITY, AND THE DEMAND FOR IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY

Economists have long argued that increasing the price of agricultural water will encourage the adoption of efficient irrigation technologies. This article considers the choice of irrigation systems conditional on prior land allocation decisions. Adoption functions for gravity and low-pressure irrigation technologies are estimated for citrus and vineyards crops using a field-level data set from California's Central Valley. Results show that the influence of land quality and water price on low-pressure technology adoption is greater for citrus than for vineyard crops. Consequently, the response of growers to changes in policy will be conditional and land allocation