IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v266y2022ics037837742200124x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency, valuation, and pricing of irrigation water in northeastern Tunisia

Author

Listed:
  • Chebil, Ali
  • Soula, Rania
  • Souissi, Asma
  • Bennouna, Bechir

Abstract

This study examines the effects of irrigation water use efficiency improvements and citrus price fluctuations on water values in the tree production systems of northeastern Tunisia. It also aims to compare water values with the real price of water as currently paid by farmers and determine the optimal price. Cross-sectional data of a selected sample of 42 citrus farms located in the main producing region of this commodity was used for the analysis. To do so, we used the stochastic frontier production function approach. Empirical findings show that significant inefficiencies do exist in the studied sample of farms. Overall mean technical efficiency and water use efficiency are 78.4% and 44.3%, respectively. Based on these values, simulation analysis indicates that an improvement in water use efficiency combined with an increase in citrus prices could shift the water marginal value curve upwards, which will result in higher water valuation. Results also show that the current water price paid by farmers is much lower than the water value estimated at the level of “theoretical” citrus irrigation requirements. Application of higher irrigation water fees is definitely feasible for the studied production system, however, they need to be accompanied by increased incentives for water use efficiency in addition to better market integration of farmers.

Suggested Citation

  • Chebil, Ali & Soula, Rania & Souissi, Asma & Bennouna, Bechir, 2022. "Efficiency, valuation, and pricing of irrigation water in northeastern Tunisia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:266:y:2022:i:c:s037837742200124x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107577
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037837742200124X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107577?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. Dhehibi, Boubaker & Lachaal, Lassaad & Elloumi, Mohamed & Messaoud, Emna B., 2007. "Measuring irrigation water use efficiency using stochastic production frontier: An application on citrus producing farms in Tunisia," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(2), pages 1-15, September.
    2. Raymond J. Kopp, 1981. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: A Reconsideration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(3), pages 477-503.
    3. Frija, Aymen & Chebil, Ali & Speelman, Stijn & Buysse, Jeroen & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2009. "Water use and technical efficiencies in horticultural greenhouses in Tunisia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1509-1516, November.
    4. Tanguy Bernard & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse & Eleni Gabre‐Madhin, 2008. "Impact of cooperatives on smallholders' commercialization behavior: evidence from Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(2), pages 147-161, September.
    5. William M. Liefert & Bruce Gardner & Eugenia Serova, 2003. "Allocative Efficiency in Russian Agriculture: The Case of Fertilizer and Grain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1228-1233.
    6. Atkinson, Scott E & Cornwell, Christopher, 1994. "Estimation of Output and Input Technical Efficiency Using a Flexible Form and Panel Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(1), pages 245-255, February.
    7. Fischer, Elisabeth & Qaim, Matin, 2012. "Linking Smallholders to Markets: Determinants and Impacts of Farmer Collective Action in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1255-1268.
    8. Omezzine, Abdallah & Zaibet, Lokman, 1998. "Management of modern irrigation systems in oman: allocative vs. irrigation efficiency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 99-107, July.
    9. Jay T. Akridge, 1989. "Measuring Productive Efficiency in Multiple Product Agribusiness Firms: A Dual Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(1), pages 116-125.
    10. Chebil, A. & Frija, A. & Thabet, C., 2012. "Irrigation water pricing between governmental policies and farmers’ perception: Implications for green-houses horticultural production in Teboulba (Tunisia)," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 1-11.
    11. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-1248, September.
    12. Badria Hamed Al Ruqishi & Tarig Gibreel & Faical Akaichi & Lokman Zaibet & Slim Zekri, 2020. "Contractual agriculture: better partnerships between small farmers and the business sector in the sultanate of Oman," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(1), pages 321-335, June.
    13. Shen, Xiaobo & Lin, Boqiang, 2017. "The shadow prices and demand elasticities of agricultural water in China: A StoNED-based analysis," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 21-28.
    14. G. Karagiannis & V. Tzouvelekas & A. Xepapadeas, 2003. "Measuring Irrigation Water Efficiency with a Stochastic Production Frontier," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 57-72, September.
    15. Badria Hamed Al Ruqishi & Tarig Gibreel & Faical Akaichi & Lokman Zaibet & Slim Zekri, 2020. "Contractual Agriculture: Better Partnerships between Small Farmers and the Business Sector in the Sultanate of Oman," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(1), pages 321-335.
    16. Yotopoulos, Pan A & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "A Test for Relative Economic Efficiency: Some Further Results," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 214-223, March.
    17. Fare, Rolf & Knox Lovell, C. A., 1978. "Measuring the technical efficiency of production," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 150-162, October.
    18. Ambrose Rwaheru Aheisibwe & Razack B Lokina & Aloyce S Hepelwa, 2018. "Technical Efficiency in Seed Potato Production Systems in Uganda," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(3), pages 122-140.
    19. Chebil, Ali & Frija, Aymen, 2016. "Impact of improving water-use efficiency on its valuation: The case of irrigated wheat production in Tunisia," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(2), pages 1-10.
    20. Bernard, Tanguy & Gabre-Madhin, Eleni Z. & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2008. "Heterogeneous Impacts Of Cooperatives On Smallholders’ Commercialization Behavior: Evidence From Ethiopia," 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana 52161, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    21. Stijn Reinhard & C.A. Knox Lovell & Geert Thijssen, 1999. "Econometric Estimation of Technical and Environmental Efficiency: An Application to Dutch Dairy Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 44-60.
    22. Frija, Aymen & Chebil, Ali & Abdelkafi, Belhassen, 2012. "Irrigation water use efficiency in collective irrigated schemes of Tunisia: determinants and potential irrigation cost reduction," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10.
    23. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    24. Agerie Nega Wassihun & Tigabu Dagnew Koye & Abebe Dagnew Koye, 2019. "Analysis of technical efficiency of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production in Chilga District, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, December.
    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. Chen, Junxu & Zhang, Chenglong & Guo, Ping, 2022. "A credibility-based interval multi-objective crop area planning model for agricultural and ecological management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    2. Saida Elfkih & Olfa Hadiji & Saker Ben Abdallah & Olfa Boussadia, 2023. "Water Accounting for Food Security: Virtual Water and Water Productivity in the Case of Tunisian Olive Oil Value Chain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, June.

    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. Chebil, Ali & Frija, Iheb & Bahri, Walid, 2014. "Irrigation water efficiency in wheat production in Chbika (Tunisia):Parametric versus Nonparametric Comparisons," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14.
    2. G. Karagiannis & V. Tzouvelekas & A. Xepapadeas, 2003. "Measuring Irrigation Water Efficiency with a Stochastic Production Frontier," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 57-72, September.
    3. Dhehibi, Boubaker, 2010. "Productive Efficiency in Water Usage: An Analysis of Differences among Citrus Producing Farms Sizes in Tunisia," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 97328, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    4. Nguyen Bich Hong & Mitsuyasu Yabe, 2017. "Improvement in irrigation water use efficiency: a strategy for climate change adaptation and sustainable development of Vietnamese tea production," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1247-1263, August.
    5. Tzouvelekas, Vangelis & Pantzios, Christos J. & Fotopoulos, Christos, 2001. "Technical efficiency of alternative farming systems: the case of Greek organic and conventional olive-growing farms," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 549-569, December.
    6. Yigezu, Yigezu A. & Ahmed, Mohamed A. & Shideed, Kamil & Aw-Hassan, Aden & El-Shater, Tamer & Al-Atwan, Samman, 2013. "Implications of a shift in irrigation technology on resource use efficiency: A Syrian case," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 14-22.
    7. Dhehibi, Boubaker & Lachaal, Lassaad & Elloumi, Mohamed & Messaoud, Emna B., 2008. "Measuring Irrigation Water Efficiency with a Stochastic Production Frontier: An Application for Citrus Producing Farms in Tunisia," 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana 52166, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    8. Pantzios, Christos J. & Rozakis, Stelios & Tzouvelekas, Vangelis, 2002. "Assessing the Perspectives of EU Cotton Farming: Technical and Scale Efficiencies of Greek Cotton Growers," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24844, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Pantzios, Christos J. & Rozakis, Stelios & Tzouvelekas, Vangelis, 2006. "Evading Farm Support Reduction via Efficient Input Use: The Case of Greek Cotton Growers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(3), pages 555-574, December.
    10. Ali, M.K., 2018. "Estimation of irrigation water use efficiency with a stochastic frontier model," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277354, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Frija, Aymen & Chebil, Ali & Abdelkafi, Belhassen, 2012. "Irrigation water use efficiency in collective irrigated schemes of Tunisia: determinants and potential irrigation cost reduction," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10.
    12. Giannis Karagiannis & Stelios Katranidis & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 1999. "Measuring Productive Efficiency of Seabass and Seabream Farms in Greece," Working Papers 9911, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    13. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    14. Chebil, Ali & Frija, Aymen & Abdelkafi, Belhassen, 2010. "Irrigation water use efficiency in collective irrigated schemes of Tunisia: determinants and potential irrigation cost reduction," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 96158, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    15. Roberto Furesi & Fabio Madau & Pietro Pulina, 2013. "Technical efficiency in the sheep dairy industry: an application on the Sardinian (Italy) sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Duyen Nhat Lam Tran & Tien Dinh Nguyen & Thuy Thu Pham & Roberto F. Rañola & Thinh An Nguyen, 2021. "Improving Irrigation Water Use Efficiency of Robusta Coffee ( Coffea canephora ) Production in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Imran, Muhammad Ali & Ali, Asghar & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Hassan, Sarfraz & Culas, Richard & Ma, Chunbo, 2019. "Impact of climate smart agriculture (CSA) through sustainable irrigation management on Resource use efficiency: A sustainable production alternative for cotton," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Karagiannis, Giannis & Tzouvelekas, Vangelis, 2001. "Self-Dual Stochastic Production Frontiers and Decomposition of Output Growth: The Case of Olive-Growing Farms in Greece," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 168-178, October.
    19. Ali Chebil & Aymen Frija, 2014. "Impact of Improving Irrigation Water Use Efficiency on the Valorization of Water Resources: Case of Irrigated Wheat Production Systems in Central Tunisia," Working Papers 865, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2014.
    20. Kuhle Prudence Mnisi & Abdul Latif Alhassan, 2021. "Financial structure and cooperative efficiency: A pecking‐order evidence from sugarcane farmers in Eswatini," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(2), pages 261-281, June.

    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:agiwat:v:266:y:2022:i:c:s037837742200124x. 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/agwat .

    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.