IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v275y2023ics0378377422005923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Water pricing reform for sustainable water resources management in China’s agricultural sector

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Cheng-Yao
  • Oki, Taikan

Abstract

Strengthening water resource management and improving water-use efficiency are crucial for sustainable development, as described in the Target 6.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Compared with developed countries, developing countries are facing some general obstacles on agricultural water management from policy making, pricing mechanisms, infrastructure, and subsidy implementations, which has left developing countries with little progress in improving agricultural water management through water pricing. However, China is moving towards more sustainable water resource management in the agricultural sector by implementing a nationwide agricultural water pricing reform. The ongoing reform contributes to the improvement of water use efficiency and water-saving rate through the core pricing mechanisms of “reasonable pricing” and “precise subsidies and water saving incentives”. In the meanwhile, the measure of “infrastructure development and management” safeguards the reform implementation and water pricing combined with “quota control management” is the tool to improve the agricultural water management. The progress of the reform shows that China has achieved remarkable results in water conservation and increasing water use efficiency but has also revealed uneven progress across the country and challenges to financial sustainability. China's changes in agricultural water pricing shows that an integrated water pricing method based on farmers' affordability is a pragmatic option for developing countries, but the implementation urgently requires upgrading of irrigation infrastructure and management systems. The policies of precise subsidies and water-saving incentives provide a solution to price failure caused by excessive subsidies that are common in developing countries. The financial constraints of current reform highlight the importance of diversifying funding channels for financial sustainability. The lessons and implications of China could provide insights for developing countries on sustainable water management in the agricultural sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Cheng-Yao & Oki, Taikan, 2023. "Water pricing reform for sustainable water resources management in China’s agricultural sector," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:275:y:2023:i:c:s0378377422005923
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2022.108045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377422005923
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2022.108045?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. Wilder, Margaret & Romero Lankao, Patricia, 2006. "Paradoxes of Decentralization: Water Reform and Social Implications in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1977-1995, November.
    2. Guillaume Gruère & Makiko Shigemitsu & Scarlett Crawford, 2020. "Agriculture and water policy changes: Stocktaking and alignment with OECD and G20 recommendations," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 144, OECD Publishing.
    3. Jonas Jägermeyr & Amandine Pastor & Hester Biemans & Dieter Gerten, 2017. "Reconciling irrigated food production with environmental flows for Sustainable Development Goals implementation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, August.
    4. Jinxia Wang & Yunyun Zhu & Tianhe Sun & Jikun Huang & Lijuan Zhang & Baozhu Guan & Qiuqiong Huang, 2020. "Forty years of irrigation development and reform in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(1), pages 126-149, January.
    5. Truong Duc Toan & Suzanne O’Keefe & Lin Crase, 2016. "Farmer heterogeneity and water pricing reform: a case study from Vietnam," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 961-977, November.
    6. Speelman, Stijn & Buysse, Jeroen & Farolfi, Stefano & Frija, Aymen & D'Haese, Marijke & D'Haese, Luc, 2009. "Estimating the impacts of water pricing on smallholder irrigators in North West Province, South Africa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1560-1566, November.
    7. Qiao, Guanghua & Zhao, Lijuan & Klein, K.K., 2009. "Water user associations in Inner Mongolia: Factors that influence farmers to join," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(5), pages 822-830, May.
    8. Lijin Zhong & Arthur Mol, 2010. "Water Price Reforms in China: Policy-Making and Implementation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 24(2), pages 377-396, January.
    9. Sampath, Rajan K., 1992. "Issues in irrigation pricing in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(7), pages 967-977, July.
    10. Momeni, Marzieh & Zakeri, Zahra & Esfandiari, Mojtaba & Behzadian, Kourosh & Zahedi, Sina & Razavi, Vahid, 2019. "Comparative analysis of agricultural water pricing between Azarbaijan Provinces in Iran and the state of California in the US: A hydro-economic approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Chu, Long & Grafton, R.Quentin, 2020. "Water pricing and the value-add of irrigation water in Vietnam: Insights from a crop choice model fitted to a national household survey," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    12. Fang, Lin & Zhang, Lin, 2020. "Does the trading of water rights encourage technology improvement and agricultural water conservation?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    13. Zhang, Dongmei & Guo, Ping, 2016. "Integrated agriculture water management optimization model for water saving potential analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 5-19.
    14. Haoyang Li & Jinhua Zhao, 2018. "Rebound Effects of New Irrigation Technologies: The Role of Water Rights," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(3), pages 786-808.
    15. Berbel, J. & Calatrava, J. & Garrido. A., 2007. "Water pricing and irrigation: a review of the European experience," IWMI Books, Reports H040611, International Water Management Institute.
    16. Sicheng Chen & Yahua Wang & Jesper Svensson, 2020. "How to promote effective irrigation pricing reform in northern China? Insights from the Taocheng District," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 697-715, July.
    17. Yahua Wang & Tingting Wan & Asit K. Biswas, 2018. "Structuring water rights in China: a hierarchical framework," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 418-433, May.
    18. Rouillard, Josselin & Rinaudo, Jean-Daniel, 2020. "From State to user-based water allocations: An empirical analysis of institutions developed by agricultural user associations in France," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    19. repec:reg:rpubli:46 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Liu, Lianhua & Ouyang, Wei & Wang, Yidi & Lian, Zhongmin & Pan, Junting & Liu, Hongbin & Chen, Jingrui & Niu, Shiwei, 2023. "Paddy water managements for diffuse nitrogen and phosphorus pollution control in China: A comprehensive review and emerging prospects," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    2. Manal Hamam & Daniela Spina & Roberta Selvaggi & Gabriella Vindigni & Gioacchino Pappalardo & Mario D'Amico & Gaetano Chinnici, 2023. "Financial sustainability in agri-food supply chains: A system approach," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 25(2), pages 135-154.

    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. Prakashan Veettil & Stijn Speelman & Guido Huylenbroeck, 2013. "Estimating the Impact of Water Pricing on Water Use Efficiency in Semi-arid Cropping System: An Application of Probabilistically Constrained Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(1), pages 55-73, January.
    2. Qing Zhou & Yali Zhang & Feng Wu, 2022. "Can Water Price Improve Water Productivity? A Water-Economic-Model-Based Study in Heihe River Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Aldaya, Maite M. & Gutiérrez-Martín, Carlos & Espinosa-Tasón, Jaime & Ederra, Idoia & Sánchez, Mercedes, 2023. "The impact of the territorial gradient and the irrigation water price on agricultural production along the first phase of the Navarra Canal in Spain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    4. Chu, Long & Grafton, R.Quentin, 2020. "Water pricing and the value-add of irrigation water in Vietnam: Insights from a crop choice model fitted to a national household survey," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    5. Fei, Rilong & Xie, Mengyuan & Wei, Xin & Ma, Ding, 2021. "Has the water rights system reform restrained the water rebound effect? Empirical analysis from China's agricultural sector," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    6. Vafaei, Elahe & Shahabi Ahangarkolaee, Saeed & Lucas-Borja, Manuel Esteban & Shabanali Fami, Hossein & Zema, Demetrio Antonio, 2021. "A framework to evaluate the factors influencing groundwater management in Water User Associations: The case study of Tafresh County (Iran)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    7. Cao, Zhaodan & Zhu, Tingju & Cai, Ximing, 2023. "Hydro-agro-economic optimization for irrigated farming in an arid region: The Hetao Irrigation District, Inner Mongolia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    8. Hanan G. Jacoby & Ghazala Mansuri, 2018. "Governing the Commons? Water and Power in Pakistan’s Indus Basin," Working Papers id:12933, eSocialSciences.
    9. Yuan, Mei-Hua & Lo, Shang-Lien, 2020. "Developing indicators for the monitoring of the sustainability of food, energy, and water," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Miao, Lu, 2023. "The greenhouse gas rebound effect from increased energy efficiency across China's staple crops," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Molle, Francois & Berkoff, Jeremy, 2007. "Water pricing in irrigation: the lifetime of an idea," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Kiprop, Jonah Kipsaat, 2015. "An Evaluation Of Farmers Willingness To Pay For Irrigation Water In Kerio Valley Basin Kenya," Research Theses 265580, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    13. Bao-Li Miao & Ying Liu & Yu-Bing Fan & Xue-Jiao Niu & Xiu-Yun Jiang & Zeng Tang, 2023. "Optimization of Agricultural Resource Allocation among Crops: A Portfolio Model Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-18, October.
    14. Louis Sears & Joseph Caparelli & Clouse Lee & Devon Pan & Gillian Strandberg & Linh Vuu & C. -Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, 2018. "Jevons’ Paradox and Efficient Irrigation Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-12, May.
    15. Esteve, Paloma & Varela-Ortega, Consuelo & Blanco-Gutiérrez, Irene & Downing, Thomas E., 2015. "A hydro-economic model for the assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation in irrigated agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 49-58.
    16. De Toni, Andrea & Vizzarri, Matteo & Di Febbraro, Mirko & Lasserre, Bruno & Noguera, Joan & Di Martino, Paolo, 2021. "Aligning Inner Peripheries with rural development in Italy: Territorial evidence to support policy contextualization," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    17. Bernhard Dalheimer & Christoph Kubitza & Bernhard Brümmer, 2022. "Technical efficiency and farmland expansion: Evidence from oil palm smallholders in Indonesia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(4), pages 1364-1387, August.
    18. Qian Chen & Jaume Freire González & Donglan Zha, 2023. "The Gap between Expectations and Reality: Assessing the Water Rebound Effect in Chinese Agriculture," Working Papers 1415, Barcelona School of Economics.
    19. Jacob Assa & Cecilia Calderon, 2020. "Privatization and Pandemic: A Cross-Country Analysis of COVID-19 Rates and Health-Care Financing Structures," Working Papers 2008, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    20. Ahmad Radmehr & Omid Bozorg-Haddad & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2022. "Developing Strategies for Agricultural Water Management of Large Irrigation and Drainage Networks with Fuzzy MCDM," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(13), pages 4885-4912, October.

    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:275:y:2023:i:c:s0378377422005923. 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.