This study analyzes the environmental efficiency of the agricultural sector regarding the use of mineral fertilizers in the period 2001–2012 for a group of European countries. Specifically, ...efficiency is assessed through a dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. This method aims to analyze temporal efficiency changes through the estimation of Malmquist indexes with increasing and decreasing temporal windows. Findings show that most countries register efficiency advances in the periods 2002–2003 and 2007–2008. Specific countries, such as Belgium-Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom, register persistently higher values of the estimated Malmquist indexes. This study contributes to the existing literature by assessing country-specific efficiency paths, as well as by identifying best-performing countries from which lessons can be learnt. A brief review of main measures taken by a selected group of benchmark countries is offered.
•Environmental efficiency patterns in managing fertilizer use are analyzed for a group of EU states between 2001 and 2012.•Inter-period changes in efficiency patterns are assessed through Malmquist indexes.•Most countries made significant advances in reducing fertilizer-use intensity in the periods 2001–2003 and 2006–2007.•Benchmark countries are identified based on increasing and decreasing temporal-windows approaches.•Main management initiatives and policies in selected benchmark countries are described.
Optimal water allocation on a seasonal basis is generally a decision taken with uncertainty regarding seasonal crop needs (unknown yield, precipitation and other environmental factors). Decision ...criteria, such as “irrigating for the good years of production” and "applying a little extra water just in case it is needed by the plant", are consistent with the rational behaviour of stochastic profit maximization. The motivation behind an increase in water allocation (acquiring water rights or reserving water for certain crops) is that of self-protection: it is better to maintain an extra allocation of water than to face potential yield losses due to water constraints on production in those years when potential yields exceed average levels. The stochastic optimization model presented herein is applied to maize in Spain showing that in current economic and technical conditions, the optimal stochastic water allocation under yield uncertainty is 10% higher than the irrigation dose required under certainty (historical average yield), which leads to an 8% higher expected profit than that obtained for an average-yield water application.
•Microeconomic implications of the potential over-allocation of irrigation water are explored.•The proposed model analyses the optimal decision for allocation of seasonal water quota under yield uncertainty.•Paradoxically, irrigation efficiency enhancement may also lead to an increase in the water-allocation quota.
Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires member states to take account not only of the principle of cost recovery of water services, including environmental and resource costs ...(ERCs), but also of the use of water pricing as an environmental policy instrument; nevertheless, no common methodology exists for the estimation of financial costs, nor is there a practical definition of ERC. The review of public evidence and scientific research regarding the effect of pricing on demand shows the limitations of water pricing and the need to integrate pricing and non-pricing instruments. Cost recovery remains a convenient policy for the financing of existing and future water infrastructures. This study offers a brief discussion on the theory and practice of pricing in Article 9 of the WFD and proposes the adoption of a more realistic approach to the implementation of cost recovery, one which abandons the unrealistic objective of monetisation of ERCs and proposes alternatives to the current emphasis on water pricing as a component of water resources management.
Water scarcity is increasing in many countries worldwide, and conflicts between alternative uses have arisen due to the high demand and the effects of climate change, among other factors. This paper ...employs a contingent valuation (CV) method to determine households’ willingness to pay (WTP) compensation to the irrigation sector to guarantee urban supply reliability under extreme water-scarcity conditions (e.g., during a drought period) through inter-sectoral water transfers. The data was obtained from a survey covering 250 households in the city of Seville. In order to estimate households’ WTP, a double-bounded approach is used. Results show that the average WTP would be between 2.53 and 2.59 euros (on a monthly basis), which would represent a viable annual water transfer of 14.3 Hm3 from the irrigation sector, which would be compensated accordingly. This study shows that inter-sectoral water transfers should be considered a viable adaptation measure to manage the consequences of water scarcity in urban areas.
This paper proposes a methodology for the analysis of the evolution of irrigation water productivity that enables the decomposition of its driving factors. The method is applied to the Guadalquivir ...river basin (southern Spain) in the period 1989-2012 where water policy has aimed to achieve greater irrigation efficiency (IE), defined as the ratio of water beneficially used divided by the total water applied, through the implementation of water conservation and saving technologies (WCSTs). The case study illustrates the basin closure process observed in recent decades and analyses its practical implications for irrigation water productivity and the role played by alternative responses, such as intensification and technical change. The analysis of these drivers of irrigation water productivity may help in the design of water policy in water-scarce areas elsewhere.
This paper explores the impact on water demand of the adoption of deficit and precision irrigation as a farmer’s attempt to respond to water scarcity by maximising water productivity. The case study ...is characterised by the intensive use of deficit irrigation techniques in olive groves, which account for 50% of all irrigated land in southern Spain. These technologies have an important influence on the structure of the water demand. This study reveals that following the adoption of such technologies, water demand does not respond to moderate changes in water price, unless price increases become so great that they reach a threshold price representing a disproportionate and unaffordable social impact. This fact has significant consequences for water policy as water pricing becomes an ineffective instrument for managing water demand in a context characterised by resource scarcity and farmers’ adoption of deficit irrigation techniques.
This paper analyses the impacts and water policy implications of an increase of perennial crops on irrigation water requirements and on the vulnerability of the agricultural system to climatic events ...in the case of the Guadalquivir River basin. As indicated by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), the characterisation of a river basin requires information on the major economic drivers and pressures at river basin scale. Guadalquivir River basin (southern Spain) can be considered a representative Mediterranean case study that has faced basin closure and continues the trend towards increased crop intensification and greater water-use efficiency. Our result shows an increased vulnerability to drought and water scarcity in the basin due to the expansion of irrigated perennial crops and a decrease of RIS (relative irrigation supply) from 0.70 to 0.56 in the period 2000–2021, thereby forcing farmers to adopt deficit irrigation techniques. The potential increase in the frequency of droughts and the growth of irrigation water requirements (IWR) due to higher temperatures, raise the vulnerability of the system to extreme climate events. Such findings can be employed to support the efficient allocation of water resources in order to improve water policy through its adaptation to increasing risks related to droughts and water scarcity.
•The evolution of irrigated area in Guadalquivir River basin is characterised by an increasing share of perennial crops.•IWR have increased continuously due to changes in crop patterns (intensification).•Since IWR exceed availability, the irrigation system applies deficit irrigation as a response, with a decreasing RIS.
Hydro-economic models (HEMs) constitute useful instruments to assess water-resource management and inform water policy. In the last decade, HEMs have achieved significant advances regarding the ...assessment of the impacts of water-policy instruments at a river basin or catchment level in the context of climate change (CC). This paper offers an overview of the alternative approaches used in river-basin hydro-economic modelling to address water-resource management issues and CC during the past decade. Additionally, it analyses how uncertainty and risk factors of global CC have been treated in recent HEMs, offering a discussion on these last advances. As the main conclusion, current challenges in the realm of hydro-economic modelling include the representation of the food-energy-water nexus, the successful representation of micro-macro linkages and feedback loops between the socio-economic model components and the physical side, and the treatment of CC uncertainties and risks in the analysis.
The Cost Recovery Principle (CRP) is considered by the European Union (EU) water policy as a substantial requirement for economic efficiency, transparency, fairness, and sustainability in the use of ...water resources. Nevertheless, the implementation of the CRP by EU Member States has encountered significant challenges, both theoretical and practical, especially regarding the accounting of environmental and resource costs related to water use by the agricultural sector. This paper aims to analyse the application of the CRP to the agricultural irrigation sector in Spain, based on the case study of the Guadalquivir River Basin. To this end, an assessment of the financial, environmental, and resource costs (and the corresponding cost recovery rates) of water services related to the irrigation sector was carried out for this specific river basin. Additionally, this study aimed to offer a much-needed discussion on the agricultural “exceptionalism” phenomenon regarding the application of the CRP at the moment when water and agricultural EU policies are being reviewed to guarantee a more sustainable development of agriculture when using such a strategic natural resource.
This paper analyses the role of gender of the chief executive officer (CEO) on the propensity to introduce innovations using a sample of 1405 Spanish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We ...examine whether there are significant differences between female- and male-led businesses in terms of their propensity to innovate, and whether these differences may be explained by factors related to the attributes of the CEO concerning risk tolerance, self-confidence, education level and cooperative behaviour. In particular, this study tests if the linkages between these managerial attributes and the propensity to innovate are influenced by the gender of the CEO. Using a multivariate
probit
model (
triprobit
), we further investigate the role of gender on the CEO decision to simultaneously introduce product, process and organisational innovations. Our main results indicate that there are not significant differences in the propensity to introduce innovations between male- and female-run businesses when considering innovation at an aggregated level, that is, innovating in any of the three types of innovations considered. However, we obtain a higher propensity of male CEOs to introduce process innovations, as compared to their female counterparts. No significant differences by gender are found for product and organisational innovations. Additionally, results of the multivariate
probit
model indicate that the three innovation decisions are interdependent and should be jointly analysed. This study contributes to the scant literature regarding gender impact on firm’s innovativeness with novel empirical evidence for SMEs.
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