IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/agecon/v56y2025i1p92-107.html

Identifying the impact of water constraints on agricultural productivity in hillside contexts

Author

Listed:
  • Felipe Dizon
  • Muhammad Saad Imtiaz
  • Jisang Yu

Abstract

Using a unique panel dataset based on two census rounds, we estimate the impact of irrigation gaps and drought on yields of paddy, maize, and other crops in Bhutan, an understudied country. We utilize a recently‐developed spatial first differences (SFD) approach to identify the impacts of water‐related constraints and compare these results from a panel fixed effects (FE) approach. We find that irrigation gaps reduce paddy yields and droughts reduce maize yields. Estimates from the SFD model are found to be consistent compared to those from the panel FE model. Water‐related constraints also reduce yields of vegetable crops, and other constraints such as labor shortages, wild animals, insects, and diseases reduce yields of cereal crops.

Suggested Citation

  • Felipe Dizon & Muhammad Saad Imtiaz & Jisang Yu, 2025. "Identifying the impact of water constraints on agricultural productivity in hillside contexts," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 56(1), pages 92-107, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:56:y:2025:i:1:p:92-107
    DOI: 10.1111/agec.12866
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12866
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/agec.12866?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Federico García Suárez & Lilyan E Fulginiti & Richard K Perrin, 2019. "What Is the Use Value of Irrigation Water from the High Plains Aquifer?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(2), pages 455-466.
    2. Dietrich Earnhart & Nathan P. Hendricks, 2023. "Adapting to water restrictions: Intensive versus extensive adaptation over time differentiated by water right seniority," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1458-1490, October.
    3. Andrew Dillon & Ram Fishman, 2019. "Dams: Effects of Hydrological Infrastructure on Development," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 125-148, October.
    4. Sampson, Gabriel S. & Hendricks, Nathan P. & Taylor, Mykel R., 2019. "Land market valuation of groundwater," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Sheetal Sekhri, 2014. "Wells, Water, and Welfare: The Impact of Access to Groundwater on Rural Poverty and Conflict," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 76-102, July.
    6. Leah J. Tsoodle & Bill B. Golden & Allen M. Featherstone, 2006. "Factors Influencing Kansas Agricultural Farm Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 82(1), pages 124-139.
    7. Dillon, Andrew, 2011. "The Effect of Irrigation on Poverty Reduction, Asset Accumulation, and Informal Insurance: Evidence from Northern Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2165-2175.
    8. Drysdale, Krystal M. & Hendricks, Nathan P., 2018. "Adaptation to an irrigation water restriction imposed through local governance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 150-165.
    9. Richard Hornbeck & Pinar Keskin, 2014. "The Historically Evolving Impact of the Ogallala Aquifer: Agricultural Adaptation to Groundwater and Drought," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 190-219, January.
    10. Maria Jones & Florence Kondylis & John Loeser & Jeremy Magruder, 2022. "Factor Market Failures and the Adoption of Irrigation in Rwanda," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2316-2352, July.
    11. Millimet, Daniel L. & Bellemare, Marc, 2023. "Fixed Effects and Causal Inference," IZA Discussion Papers 16202, IZA Network @ LISER.
    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. Yulong Chen & Sophie Xuefei Wang & Xu Wang, 2026. "The Effects of the South‐to‐North Water Transfer Project on Agriculture in China: A Tale of Two Routes," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 57(1), January.

    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. Blakeslee, David & Dar, Aaditya & Fishman, Ram & Malik, Samreen & Pellegrina, Heitor S. & Bagavathinathan, Karan Singh, 2023. "Irrigation and the spatial pattern of local economic development in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Dizon,Felipe Jr Fadullon & Imtiaz,Muhammad Saad & Yu,Jisang, 2023. "Water Constraints to Agricultural Productivity in Bhutan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10410, The World Bank.
    3. Sampson, Gabriel S. & Hendricks, Nathan P. & Taylor, Mykel R., 2019. "Land market valuation of groundwater," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. Behrer, A.Patrick & Pullabhotla, Hemant, 2025. "Spilling over: The benefits of public works projects for groundwater in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Maria Jones & Florence Kondylis & John Loeser & Jeremy Magruder, 2022. "Factor Market Failures and the Adoption of Irrigation in Rwanda," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2316-2352, July.
    6. Eric C. Edwards & Nathan P. Hendricks & Gabriel S. Sampson, 2025. "The capitalization of property rights to groundwater," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(2), pages 390-410, March.
    7. Hrozencik, Aaron & Perez-Quesada, Gabriela & Donahue, Hannah, 2025. "The development and current challenges of irrigated agriculture in the western U.S," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    8. Casagrande, Dieison & Emanuel, Lucas & Freitas, Carlos & Oliveira, Felipe, 2024. "Climate adaptation policies and rural income: Evidence from social technologies in Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    9. Lee, Juhee & Hendricks, Nathan P., 2022. "Crop Choice Decisions in Response to Soil Salinization on Irrigated Land in California," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322602, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Hrozencik, Aaron & Aillery, Marcel, 2021. "Trends in U.S. Irrigated Agriculture: Increasing Resilience Under Water Supply Scarcity," Economic Information Bulletin 327359, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Filippelli, Steven K. & Sloggy, Matthew R. & Vogeler, Jody C. & Manning, Dale T. & Goemans, Christopher & Senay, Gabriel B., 2022. "Remote sensing of field-scale irrigation withdrawals in the central Ogallala aquifer region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    12. Yulong Chen & Sophie Xuefei Wang & Xu Wang, 2026. "The Effects of the South‐to‐North Water Transfer Project on Agriculture in China: A Tale of Two Routes," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 57(1), January.
    13. Liu, Ziheng, 2025. "CO2-driven crop comparative advantage and planting decision: Evidence from US cropland," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    14. Manning, Dale T. & Rad, Mani Rouhi & Suter, Jordan F. & Goemans, Christopher & Xiang, Zaichen & Bailey, Ryan, 2020. "Non-market valuation in integrated assessment modeling: The benefits of water right retirement," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Kegan O’Connor & Dietrich Earnhart, 2026. "Focused Enforcement to Improve Compliance: Effects of the EPA Priority Sector Program on Clean Water Act Compliance," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 89(4), pages 1-46, April.
    16. Hrozencik, Aaron & Aillery, Marcel, "undated". "Trends in U.S. Irrigated Agriculture: Increasing Resilience Under Water Supply Scarcity," USDA Miscellaneous 316792, United States Department of Agriculture.
    17. Zaveri, Esha & Wrenn, Douglas H. & Fisher-Vanden, Karen, 2016. "Water in the Balance: The Impact of Water Infrastructure on Agricultural Adaptation to Rainfall Shocks in India," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236216, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Dietrich Earnhart & Nathan P. Hendricks, 2023. "Adapting to water restrictions: Intensive versus extensive adaptation over time differentiated by water right seniority," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1458-1490, October.
    19. Perez-Quesada, Gabriela & Hendricks, Nathan P. & Steward, David R., 2020. "Quantifying the economic costs of High Plains Aquifer depletion," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304225, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Brown, Christina Estela & Tanner, Sophia J. & Hrozencik, R. Aaron & Gramig, Benjamin M., 2025. "The Agricultural and Economic Value of Water," Economic Information Bulletin 356606, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:agecon:v:56:y:2025:i:1:p:92-107. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    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.