Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Applied Economics

Committee Chair(s)

Ryan Larsen

Committee

Ryan Larsen

Committee

Man-Keun Kim

Committee

Ryan Bosworth

Abstract

Water diversions for irrigated agriculture have contributed to increased water stress in drought prone areas across the globe. Previous research finds that farmers increase irrigation intensity per unit of product grown, increase total area under irrigation, and switch to more water intensive crops to increase yields and compensate for the cost of drip irrigation installation. Other studies have shown that drip irrigation can produce yields that parity surface irrigated yields or even surpass them using less water and increasing profits. Ultimately this plot trial showed drip irrigated onion yields were 6.31% greater than surface irrigated onion yields using an average of 61.46% less in water diversions. A Monte Carlo analysis conducted on yield and price found drip irrigated onions had a mean yield per acre of 25,434 pounds, a mean return of $13,134 and a median return of $8,711 while surface irrigated onions had a mean yield per acre of 22,193 pounds, a mean return of $23,416 and a median return of $7,994. Drip onions had a standard deviation of $24,665 and surface irrigated onions had a standard deviation of $127,427. Similar to Halvorsen et al., Enciso et al., Gupta et al., Naravanamoorthy et al., and Jha et al. papers, greater yields were found in drip irrigated onions than surface irrigated onions. Further studies are needed to investigate the efficacy of drip irrigation as a viable water conservation tactic in the arid west.

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