Overcoming Obstacles to Deficit Irrigation: Colorado Case Study
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 145, Issue 10
Abstract
Deficit irrigation, or the deliberate underirrigation of a crop, is a way to save farm water and allocate it to uses such as municipal, industrial, or agricultural expansion. Research on this practice has focused on profitability, but with conflicting results. The feasibility of deficit irrigation involves more than economic concerns, and agronomic and legal aspects are also important in improving farm operations. The feasibility of deficit irrigation depends to a large extent on context, and a case involving the water law system of the State of Colorado in the western United States was examined to provide a real-world instance to study the institutional and technical challenges of implementing it. Colorado has experienced extensive transfers from agriculture to urban areas and is interested in employing deficit irrigation to free more irrigation water for use in the future. Based on the results, the paper suggests practical methods for implementation of deficit irrigation in Colorado, with possible implications for similar regions with irrigated agriculture.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ag Water NetWORK. 2016. “2016 Ag Water Right Holder Survey Results Summary.” Arvada, CO. Accessed May 12, 2017. https://www.coloradocattle.org/CMDocs/ColoradoCattlemen/2016AgWaterSurveyResultsReport.pdf.
Allen, R. G., L. S. Pereira, D. Raes, and M. Smith. 1998. Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop requirements: Irrigation and drainage paper No. 56, FAO. Rome: FAO.
Brumbelow, K., and A. Georgakakos. 2007. “Optimization and assessment of agricultural water-sharing scenarios under multiple socioeconomic objectives.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 133 (3): 264–274. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2007)133:3(264).
Colorado Division of Water Resources. n.d. “Lease fallow tool.” Accessed February 3, 2017. http://water.state.co.us/DataMaps/ModelingCDSS/Pages/LeaseFallowTool.aspx.
Colorado Water Conservation Board. 2005. “Water efficiency grants.” Accessed February 3, 2017. http://cwcb.state.co.us/LoansGrants/water-efficiency-grants/Pages/main.aspx.
Colorado Water Conservation Board. 2015. Colorado’s water plan. Denver: Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Devine, B. 2015. “Moving waters: The legacy of buy-and-dry and the challenge of lease-fallowing in Colorado’s Arkansas River Basin.” M.S. thesis, Program in Environmental Studies, Univ. of Colorado.
DiNatale Water Consultants. 2013. Alternatives to permanent dry up of formerly irrigated lands. Boulder, CO: DiNatale Water Consultants.
Doorenbos, J., and A. H. Kassam. 1979. Yield response to water. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
English, M. 1990. “Deficit irrigation. Part I: Analytical framework.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 116 (3): 399–412. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(1990)116:3(399).
Geerts, S., and D. Raes. 2009. “Deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy to maximize crop water productivity in dry areas.” Agric. Water Manage. 96 (9): 1275–1284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2009.04.009.
Hargreaves, G. H., and Z. A. Samani. 1984. “Economic considerations of deficit irrigation.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 110 (4): 343–358. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(1984)110:4(343).
Houk, E. E., M. Frasier, and R. G. Taylor. 2007. “Evaluating water transfers from agriculture for reducing critical habitat water shortages in the platte basin.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 133 (4): 320–328. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2007)133:4(320).
Jensen, A. M., M. Baumann, and Y. Chen. 2008. “Low-cost multispectral aerial imaging using autonomous runway-free small flying wing vehicles.” In Proc., IGARSS 2008—2008 IEEE Int. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symp., V-506–V-509. New York: IEEE.
Jensen, M. E. 1968. “Water consumption by agricultural plants.” In Vol. II of Water deficits and plant growth, edited by T. T. Kozlowski, 1–20. New York: Academic Press.
Jones, P. A., and T. Cech. 2009. Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
Kallenberger, J. A. 2013. “Understanding beliefs and preferences of irrigators towards the use and management of agricultural water in the Colorado River Basin.” Master thesis, Dept. of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State Univ.
Kenney, D. 2015. Improving the viability of alternative water transfer methods (ATM) in Colorado: A synthesis of research and findings from the Getches-Wilkinson Center, 2014–2015. Boulder, CO: Univ. of Colorado Law School.
Klocke, N. L., D. E. Eisenhauer, J. E. Specht, R. W. Elmore, and G. W. Hergert. 1989. “Irrigation soybeans by growth stages in Nebraska.” Appl. Eng. Agric. 5 (3): 361–366. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.26528.
Kullberg, E. G. 2015. “Evaluation of stress coefficient methods to estimate crop evapotranspiration.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State Univ.
Larimer County Department of Natural Resources. 2017. News release—Larimer County, Broomfield finalize innovative water agreement. Fort Collins, CO: Larimer County.
Lillesand, T. M., R. W. Kiefer, and J. W. Chipman. 2008. Remote sensing and image interpretation. New York: Wiley.
MacDonnell, L. J. 2015. “Navigating a pathway toward Colorado’s water future: A review and recommendations on Colorado’s Draft Water Plan.” Boulder Colorado. Accessed March 17, 2017. http://scholar.lawcolorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1155&context=books_reports_studies.
Mahmoudzadeh Varzi, M. 2016. “Crop water production functions—A review of available mathematical methods.” J. Agric. Sci. 8 (4): 76. https://doi.org/10.5539/jas.v8n4p76.
Mahmoudzadeh Varzi, M., and N. Grigg. 2019. “Alternative water transfer methods: Review of Colorado experiences.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 145 (7): 04019011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001401.
Mahmoudzadeh Varzi, M., and R. Oad. 2016. “Adapting subsurface drip irrigation system to deficit irrigation.” In Hydrology days, edited by J. Ramirez. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State Univ.
Mahmoudzadeh Varzi, M., and R. Oad. 2018. “Sorghum-Sudangrass water productivity under subsurface drip irrigation.” Irrig. Drain. 67 (5): 702–712. https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.2278.
Mahmoudzadeh Varzi, M., T. J. Trout, K. C. DeJonge, and R. Oad. 2019. “Optimal water allocation under deficit irrigation in the context of Colorado Water Law.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng. 145 (5): 05019003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001374.
Manning, D. T., S. Lurbé, L. H. Comas, T. J. Trout, N. Flynn, and S. J. Fonte. 2018. “Economic viability of deficit irrigation in the Western US.” Agric. Water Manage. 196 (Jan): 114–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2017.10.024.
Rogers, D. H., J. Aguilar, I. Kisekka, P. L. Barnes, and F. R. Lamm. 2015. “Agricultural crop water use.” Accessed July 11, 2017. https://www.bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/L934.pdf.
Serbina, L. 2012. Describing and quantifying revenue risk producers face when adopting water conserving cropping systems. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State Univ.
Solomon, K. H. 1985. “Typical crop water production functions.” In Proc., Winter Meeting of American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 19. St. Joseph, MI: ASAE.
Steduto, P., T. C. Hsiao, E. Fereres, and D. Raes. 2012. Crop yield response to water. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Tidwell, V. C., et al. 2014. “Mapping water availability, projected use and cost in the western United States.” Environ. Res. Lett. 9 (6): 064009. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064009.
Trout, T. J., and W. C. Bausch. 2012. “Water production functions for central plains crops.” In Proc., 24th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conf., edited by F. R. Lamm, 79–87. Kearney, NE: Central Plains Irrigation Association.
Trout, T. J., and W. C. Bausch. 2017. “USDA-ARS Colorado maize water productivity data set.” Irrig. Sci. 35 (3): 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-017-0537-9.
Trout, T. J., and K. C. DeJonge. 2017. “Water productivity of maize in the US high plains.” Irrig. Sci. 35 (3): 251–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-017-0540-1.
Turral, H. N., T. Etchells, H. M. M. Malano, H. A. Wijedasa, P. Taylor, T. A. M. McMahon, and N. Austin. 2005. “Water trading at the margin: The evolution of water markets in the Murray-Darling Basin.” Water Resour. Res. 41 (7): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004WR003463.
Vashisht, A. 2016. “Remote sensing assessments of consumptive use of agricultural water in Western Slope of Colorado.” M.S. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State Univ.
Wang, C., and S. Nair. 2013. “The economics of deficit irrigation.” Nat. Resour. Model. 26 (3): 331–364. https://doi.org/10.1111/nrm.12004.
WestWater Research LLC. 2016. “Colorado’s South Platte basin water rights market.” Water Market Insider. Accessed September 5, 2017. http://www.waterexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/16-0217-Q1-2016-WWInsider-LO-singles.pdf.
Woli, P., J. W. Jones, K. T. Ingram, and G. Hoogenboom. 2014. “Predicting crop yields with the agricultural reference index for drought.” J. Agron. Crop Sci. 200 (3): 163–171. https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.12055.
Zhang, B., S. Q. Yuan, J. S. Zhang, and H. Li. 2008. “Study of corn optimization irrigation model by genetic algorithms.” In Vol. 258 of Proc., IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, 121–132. Boston: Springer.
Zhang, H., and T. Oweis. 1999. “Water-yield relations and optimal irrigation scheduling of wheat in the Mediterranean region.” Agric. Water Manage. 38 (3): 195–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-3774(98)00069-9.
Zhang, K., J. S. Kimball, and S. W. Running. 2016. “A review of remote sensing based actual evapotranspiration estimation.” Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Water 3 (6): 834–853. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1168.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 22, 2018
Accepted: Feb 18, 2019
Published online: Jul 16, 2019
Published in print: Oct 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Dec 16, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.