This $527,360 federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310) supports a 3-year research project at Utah State University (USU) focused on understanding the economic and policy mechanisms underlying agricultural water use decisions in Utah.
The key objectives of the project are to: 1) collect and compile detailed irrigation water rights and runoff data for three Utah watersheds, 2) analyze the impacts of water rights and supply uncertainty on farmers' agricultural management practices, 3) estimate farmers' willingness to accept payments for irrigation water conservation, and 4) design and model the costs of incentive-based policies to promote sustainable agricultural water use. By leveraging interdisciplinary expertise in economic water resource modeling, agricultural land management, and climate science, the project aims to provide evidence-based insights to inform the development of policies and incentives that encourage agricultural water conservation, particularly in the context of climate change and uncertain water supplies.
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