| The Chinese government has been exploring efficient water management methods to alleviate the crisis of water shortages and to maximize the efficiency of the use of water resources.However,the contradiction between supply and demand of agricultural water resources in China is increasingly prominent.The agricultural water price policy implemented for many years fails to improve water conservation significantly.The proportion of agricultural irrigation water has been at a high level,and the corresponding gap between reality and policy goals has prompted people to think about the underlying reasons.The increase in the farmers’ income and food security are of great importance for social stability and development.Thus,in addition to achieving water-saving,the agricultural water price policy has to ensure that farmers’ income and the stable supply of agricultural products.The multiplicity of targets has caused the increase of the agricultural water price only within a small range.Previous studies showed that the effectiveness of agricultural water price is still controversial.Exploring the effects of water price on the irrigation water consumption could help solve this controversial and further provide a theoretical basis for the design of water price in future agricultural water price policy.The comprehensive reform of agricultural water price is an important measure and is an innovation in China.The reform increases the price lever to promote agricultural water-saving and increases the incentive mechanism for farmers to save water.In response to the increase in water costs,farmers will make other water-saving behaviours.Moreover,further exploring the impact of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices on farmers’ water-saving behaviours will help improve the comprehensive evaluation of agricultural water price policies.The survey was carried out in Xinjiang province to explore the differences in water price pricing methods and pricing standards under the three policies,i.e.,unified water price,step water price and comprehensive agricultural water price reform.This study also reveals that water price policy affects irrigation water consumption significantly and investigates the impact of the comprehensive agricultural water price reforms on farmers’ water-saving behaviour.Moreover,this study is a reference for other regions,especially dry and waterdeficient areas where comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices are going to be carried out.Research content 1:Theoretical analysis of the impact of agricultural water price on agricultural water use and irrigation water consumption.This section theoretically explores the differences in irrigation water cost under different agricultural water price policies,and further explores the impact of economic leverage on irrigation water consumption and water-saving behaviour,providing a theoretical basis for the following empirical analysis.Results showed that there are differences in the water cost under different agricultural water price policies.The higher marginal price in the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices usually results in strong incentives of farmers to save water.In addition to irrigation water consumption,agricultural water pricing policies may also affect farmers’ irrigation technology,planting structure,and land management area adjustments.Research content 2:The impact of agricultural water price policy on irrigation water consumption of farmers:water price threshold effect.The research goal of this section is to determine the water price threshold that affects irrigation water consumption,which,in turn,can explain why the water-saving effect of the agricultural water price policy is not significant.The corn and cotton are the main crops in the survey area.Thus,the irrigation water consumption per mu of corn or cotton were taken as the research object.The threshold effect of water prices on irrigation water and the implication of comprehensive agricultural water price reforms on irrigation were investigated.Results showed that there is a threshold for the effect of water price on the irrigation water consumption,and price leverage is a useful tool only when the water price is in a certain price range.When the water price is lower than the threshold value,farmers are not sensitive to changes in water prices,and the rise of water prices cannot effectively promote the conservation of agricultural irrigation water.After the water price threshold,the irrigation water consumption of farmers decreases with the increase of water price,and the watersaving effect of water price becomes prominent.Compared with areas where the comprehensive agricultural water price reform has not been implemented,the irrigation water consumption of farmers is lower than the areas where the comprehensive agricultural water price reform has been implemented.Research content 3:The impact of agricultural water prices on farmer irrigation water management and irrigation facilities.This section is to explore the main ways for farmers to reduce irrigation water consumption by analyzing the impact of water price on farmers’ irrigation frequency,seed input,mulching film input,and capillary input.Results showed that,with the rise of water price,farmers would reduce the frequency of irrigation and increase the capillary input in drip irrigation technology to achieve the purpose of saving water.Research content 4:The impact of agricultural water price policy on the planting structure of farmers.This section is to explore the effects of water price policies on crop selection.The results showed that,compared with other agricultural water price policies,the marginal cost of water for farmers under the comprehensive agricultural water price reform is higher.Therefore,farmers would increase the proportion of crops that consume low water.The setting of a lowprice water quota per mu is a kind of subsidy to farmers and has a non-linear relationship with the proportion of low-water-consuming crops.When the quota is small,with the increase of the quota,farmers will increase the proportion of low-water-consuming crops.However,when the quota exceeds a certain value,as the quota increases,farmers will reduce the planting of low-water-consuming crops.Research content 5:The impact of agricultural water price policy on the land transfer of farmers.This section is to determine the impact of agricultural water price policies on farmers’land transfer behaviour and to explore the relationship between the transfer of household’s land scale and water-saving capacity.The results showed that the implementation of comprehensive reforms in agricultural water prices has promoted the development of the land market and promoted the transfer of land between farmers.The water use efficiency is one of the main factors that affect the land transfer of farmers.Farmers with relatively low water resource utilization efficiency may choose to outflow their land in the face of rising water prices and reduce the area of land.With the rising of the water prices,farmers with high water use efficiency can cope with the increase in water prices and trend to increase the land area.Based on the above research conclusions,the study finally makes some suggestions about the low-price water quota system,the efficiency of irrigation water for farmers,a water rights trading platform,agricultural initial water rights trading,water prices,and water-saving irrigation technology. |
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