IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v133y2015icp97-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The economics of irrigating wheat in a humid climate – A study in the East of England

Author

Listed:
  • El Chami, D.
  • Knox, J.W.
  • Daccache, A.
  • Weatherhead, E.K.

Abstract

In the UK, wheat is the most important cultivated cereal, grown extensively as a rainfed crop. Irrigation of wheat has previously been considered uneconomic, but increases in world wheat prices and recent droughts have led to some farmers revising their views. Widespread adoption of wheat irrigation would have major implications for wheat production, the irrigation industry and water resources in regions that are already water scarce. This study investigated the financial viability of irrigating winter wheat grown on a sandy loam soil in the East of England. Long-term climate data (1961–2011) for Silsoe (Bedfordshire) was used to drive a biophysical crop model to assess irrigation water requirements and yield response. Modelling assumed a typical irrigation schedule to maximise yield and quality, and average reported wheat prices for 2007 to 2012. Irrigation costs were calculated assuming an overhead mobile hosereel–raingun system applying river water, abstracted either in summer and used directly, or abstracted in winter and stored in an on-farm reservoir.

Suggested Citation

  • El Chami, D. & Knox, J.W. & Daccache, A. & Weatherhead, E.K., 2015. "The economics of irrigating wheat in a humid climate – A study in the East of England," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 97-108.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:97-108
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2014.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X14001437
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2014.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dueri, S. & Calanca, P.L. & Fuhrer, J., 2007. "Climate change affects farm nitrogen loss - A Swiss case study with a dynamic farm model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-3), pages 191-214, March.
    2. ., 1994. "Cost-Benefit Analysis," Chapters, in: Geoffrey M. Hodgson & Warren J. Samuels & Marc R. Tool (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics, volume 0, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Lehmann, Niklaus & Finger, Robert & Klein, Tommy & Calanca, Pierluigi & Walter, Achim, 2013. "Adapting crop management practices to climate change: Modeling optimal solutions at the field scale," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 55-65.
    4. Iqbal, M. Anjum & Shen, Yanjun & Stricevic, Ruzica & Pei, Hongwei & Sun, Hongyoung & Amiri, Ebrahim & Penas, Angel & del Rio, Sara, 2014. "Evaluation of the FAO AquaCrop model for winter wheat on the North China Plain under deficit irrigation from field experiment to regional yield simulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 61-72.
    5. Wyatt Thompson & Garry Smith & Armelle Elasri, 2012. "World Wheat Price Volatility: Selected Scenario Analyses," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 59, OECD Publishing.
    6. Bacsi, Z. & Thornton, P. K. & Dent, J. B., 1991. "Impacts of future climate change on Hungarian crop production: An application of crop growth simulation models," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 435-450.
    7. De Silva, C.S. & Weatherhead, E.K. & Knox, J.W. & Rodriguez-Diaz, J.A., 2007. "Predicting the impacts of climate change--A case study of paddy irrigation water requirements in Sri Lanka," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 19-29, October.
    8. Mkhabela, Manasah S. & Bullock, Paul R., 2012. "Performance of the FAO AquaCrop model for wheat grain yield and soil moisture simulation in Western Canada," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 16-24.
    9. Jerry W. Knox & Steven Wade, 2012. "Assessing climate risks to UK agriculture," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(6), pages 378-378, June.
    10. Richter, G.M. & Semenov, M.A., 2005. "Modelling impacts of climate change on wheat yields in England and Wales: assessing drought risks," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 77-97, April.
    11. Stricevic, Ruzica & Cosic, Marija & Djurovic, Nevenka & Pejic, Borivoj & Maksimovic, Livija, 2011. "Assessment of the FAO AquaCrop model in the simulation of rainfed and supplementally irrigated maize, sugar beet and sunflower," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(10), pages 1615-1621, August.
    12. Dhungana, P. & Eskridge, K.M. & Weiss, A. & Baenziger, P.S., 2006. "Designing crop technology for a future climate: An example using response surface methodology and the CERES-Wheat model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 63-79, January.
    13. Aurbacher, Joachim & Parker, Phillip S. & Calberto Sánchez, Germán A. & Steinbach, Jennifer & Reinmuth, Evelyn & Ingwersen, Joachim & Dabbert, Stephan, 2013. "Influence of climate change on short term management of field crops – A modelling approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 44-57.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Morris, J. & Else, M.A. & El Chami, D. & Daccache, A. & Rey, D. & Knox, J.W., 2017. "Essential irrigation and the economics of strawberries in a temperate climate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 90-99.
    2. Meyer-Aurich, Andreas & Gandorfer, Markus & Trost, Benjamin & Ellmer, Frank & Baumecker, Michael, 2016. "Risk efficiency of irrigation to cereals in northeast Germany with respect to nitrogen fertilizer," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 132-138.
    3. Drerup, Philipp & Brueck, Holger & Scherer, Heinrich W., 2017. "Evapotranspiration of winter wheat estimated with the FAO 56 approach and NDVI measurements in a temperate humid climate of NW Europe," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 180-188.
    4. El Chami, D. & Daccache, A., 2015. "Assessing sustainability of winter wheat production under climate change scenarios in a humid climate — An integrated modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 19-25.
    5. Sain, Gustavo & Loboguerrero, Ana María & Corner-Dolloff, Caitlin & Lizarazo, Miguel & Nowak, Andreea & Martínez-Barón, Deissy & Andrieu, Nadine, 2017. "Costs and benefits of climate-smart agriculture: The case of the Dry Corridor in Guatemala," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 163-173.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ran, Hui & Kang, Shaozhong & Li, Fusheng & Du, Taisheng & Tong, Ling & Li, Sien & Ding, Risheng & Zhang, Xiaotao, 2018. "Parameterization of the AquaCrop model for full and deficit irrigated maize for seed production in arid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 438-450.
    2. Toumi, J. & Er-Raki, S. & Ezzahar, J. & Khabba, S. & Jarlan, L. & Chehbouni, A., 2016. "Performance assessment of AquaCrop model for estimating evapotranspiration, soil water content and grain yield of winter wheat in Tensift Al Haouz (Morocco): Application to irrigation management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 219-235.
    3. Mustafa, S.M.T. & Vanuytrecht, E. & Huysmans, M., 2017. "Combined deficit irrigation and soil fertility management on different soil textures to improve wheat yield in drought-prone Bangladesh," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 124-137.
    4. Seyed Ahmadi & Elnaz Mosallaeepour & Ali Kamgar-Haghighi & Ali Sepaskhah, 2015. "Modeling Maize Yield and Soil Water Content with AquaCrop Under Full and Deficit Irrigation Managements," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2837-2853, June.
    5. Maniruzzaman, M. & Talukder, M.S.U. & Khan, M.H. & Biswas, J.C. & Nemes, A., 2015. "Validation of the AquaCrop model for irrigated rice production under varied water regimes in Bangladesh," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 331-340.
    6. Keikha, Mahdi & Darzi- Naftchali, Abdullah & Motevali, Ali & Valipour, Mohammad, 2023. "Effect of nitrogen management on the environmental and economic sustainability of wheat production in different climates," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    7. El Chami, D. & Daccache, A., 2015. "Assessing sustainability of winter wheat production under climate change scenarios in a humid climate — An integrated modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 19-25.
    8. Adeboye, Omotayo B. & Schultz, Bart & Adekalu, Kenneth O. & Prasad, Krishna C., 2019. "Performance evaluation of AquaCrop in simulating soil water storage, yield, and water productivity of rainfed soybeans (Glycine max L. merr) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 1130-1146.
    9. Schönhart, Martin & Schauppenlehner, Thomas & Schmid, Erwin, 2014. "Integrated land use modelling of climate change impacts in two Austrian case study landscapes at field level," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182680, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Pereira, Luis S. & Paredes, Paula & Rodrigues, Gonçalo C. & Neves, Manuela, 2015. "Modeling malt barley water use and evapotranspiration partitioning in two contrasting rainfall years. Assessing AquaCrop and SIMDualKc models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 239-254.
    11. Wellens, Joost & Raes, Dirk & Traore, Farid & Denis, Antoine & Djaby, Bakary & Tychon, Bernard, 2013. "Performance assessment of the FAO AquaCrop model for irrigated cabbage on farmer plots in a semi-arid environment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 40-47.
    12. Shirazi, Sana Zeeshan & Mei, Xurong & Liu, Buchun & Liu, Yuan, 2021. "Assessment of the AquaCrop Model under different irrigation scenarios in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    13. Er-Raki, S. & Bouras, E. & Rodriguez, J.C. & Watts, C.J. & Lizarraga-Celaya, C. & Chehbouni, A., 2021. "Parameterization of the AquaCrop model for simulating table grapes growth and water productivity in an arid region of Mexico," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    14. Emmanuel Lekakis & Athanasios Zaikos & Alexios Polychronidis & Christos Efthimiou & Ioannis Pourikas & Theano Mamouka, 2022. "Evaluation of Different Modelling Techniques with Fusion of Satellite, Soil and Agro-Meteorological Data for the Assessment of Durum Wheat Yield under a Large Scale Application," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, October.
    15. Schönhart, Martin & Schauppenlehner, Thomas & Kuttner, Michael & Kirchner, Mathias & Schmid, Erwin, 2016. "Climate change impacts on farm production, landscape appearance, and the environment: Policy scenario results from an integrated field-farm-landscape model in Austria," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 39-50.
    16. Ćosić, Marija & Stričević, Ružica & Djurović, Nevenka & Moravčević, Djordje & Pavlović, Miloš & Todorović, Mladen, 2017. "Predicting biomass and yield of sweet pepper grown with and without plastic film mulching under different water supply and weather conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 91-100.
    17. Tamiru Lemi & Fekadu Hailu, 2019. "Effects of Climate Change Variability on Agricultural Productivity," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 17(1), pages 14-20, February.
    18. Ding, Yimin & Wang, Weiguang & Song, Ruiming & Shao, Quanxi & Jiao, Xiyun & Xing, Wanqiu, 2017. "Modeling spatial and temporal variability of the impact of climate change on rice irrigation water requirements in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 89-101.
    19. Giovanni Lombardo & Andrea Mazzocchetti & Irene Rapallo & Nader Tayser & Silvano Cincotti, 2019. "Assessment of the Economic and Social Impact Using SROI: An Application to Sport Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Phogat, V. & Cox, J.W. & Šimůnek, J., 2018. "Identifying the future water and salinity risks to irrigated viticulture in the Murray-Darling Basin, South Australia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 107-117.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:97-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.