Climate change, irrigation adjustments, and its economic impacts

Abstract

As an adaptation strategy for coping with climate change, the expansion of supplemental irrigated agriculture can be appropriate for the southeast region. In this dissertation, economic and employment impacts for the expansion of irrigated agriculture are estimated by applying the supply-driven Georgia multiregional input-output (MRIO) model. For the analysis, non-irrigated cultivable acreage of cotton, peanuts, corn, and soybeans in 42 counties of southwest Georgia are assumed 100% converted into irrigated acreage. With this assumption, the difference in total net returns of production between the non-irrigation and irrigation method is calculated as input data of the supply-driven Georgia MRIO model. Applying the difference in total net returns of each county by each crop to the supply-driven Georgia MRIO model, the economic impact and employment impact of increasing agricultural production due to the conversion of non-irrigated acreage is estimated for 159 counties and 21 industry sectors. Based on the information of a 95% confidence interval for each crop’s average price, the lower and upper bounds of estimated results are also presented.