Impacts of sparing use of water on farmer income of China

Publication date: Available online 25 September 2015 Source:Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C Author(s): Zhan Wang, Xiangzheng Deng, Jiancheng Chen we examine relationships between nationwide sparing use of water and farmer income of China in this article. As increasing implementation of water projects and irrigation system, the cost of water use has increased and many regions. However, as local policy-oriented urban expansion and ecological restoration have carried out during the past decade, water demand has increased. The spatial distributions of water use and farmer income are uneven and their relationships are ambiguous over time, especially it is uncertain that farmers can benefit from those so called water-saving programs when urban expansion grows faster in China. Based on consumption theory, empirical results of Blundell-Bond dynamic panel-data model with generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators indicate saving one percent of water has positive impacts at 0.085∼0.35 percent on farmer income in the following statistical year. Population has negative impacts on farmer income. Particularly in Central China, one percent of increase in population will significantly decrease 0.276 percent of contemporaneous farmer income. Particularly, in Eastern China with large population during years 2004 through 2012, the total amount of water use increases one percent, contemporaneous farmer income loses 0.04 percent. Thus, saving water can benefit futu...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - Category: Science Source Type: research