Irrigator adaptation to groundwater depletion in Western Kansas: 1992--1999

Overpumping of the Ogallala Aquifer in Western Kansas for irrigated crop production has led to groundwater depletion. The major impact at the farm-level has been economic depletion, or increased costs of pumping water from greater depths. The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the region will depend upon farmers becoming more efficient in their use of water through the adoption of water conservation techniques.; This study measures indirectly the diffusion of management-intensive water conservation methods among farmers in western Kansas during the period 1992–1999. Management-intensive techniques offer a less costly alternative to capital-intensive methods of water conservation. The assumption is that if the diffusion of management-intensive techniques took place it would manifest itself in increased efficiency of production, either with respect to water or to all inputs.; The study estimates an empirical aggregate production function using pooled cross-sectional and time series data for a sample of 28 farmers in western Kansas during the period 1992–1999, with the value of irrigated crop production as the dependent variable. Independent variables include discretionary inputs such as the amount of irrigation water and nondiscretionary inputs such as annual average precipitation. The study objective was to determine if the production function exhibited evidence of technological change in the form of a consistent upward shift of the production function over time, or a consistent increase in the coefficient for irrigation water.; Although descriptive statistics revealed substantial adoption of capital-intensive methods among this sample of farmers during the study period in the form of a shift from flood irrigation to center pivot sprinklers with drop tubes, model results did not support the diffusion of management-intensive techniques over the study period. This is in agreement with previous studies in the region. Preferences for capital-intensive water conservation methods will contribute to the declining profitability of irrigated agriculture in the region.