| No | SDES-2023-5 |
|---|---|
| Title | How does the number of water users in a land reform matter for irrigation water availability? |
| Author | Sharofiddinov Husniddin, Moinul Islam and Koji Kotani |
| Abstract | Land reforms have been reported to impact agriculture, economic performances and indicators of countries along with water users and allocations. However, little is known about how land fragmentation (consolidation) in land-reform processes affects water availability. This research investigates a question “how the number of water users is related with irrigation water allocation in land reforms,” hypothesizing that an increase in the number of water users through land fragmentation poses negative threats on the water allocation through a mediation of irrigation types. We conduct empirical analyses for irrigation water demand and availability, utilizing panel data for 25 years from 13 districts in Sugd province, Tajikistan. Two main results are obtained: First, the irrigated areas are main drivers that increase irrigation water demand in comparison to any other factors, and the impact by pump irrigated areas is approximately 1.6 times as large as that by gravity irrigated areas. Second, the increasing number of water users under land fragmentation in Tajikistan tends to reduce irrigation water availability, and the magnitude in reduction under pump irrigation is more significant than that under gravity irrigation. Overall, this research establishes that irrigations and the number of water users through land reforms matter for a change in the water allocation, and the interactions particularly pose the idiosyncratic threats on the irrigation water availability. Thus, it is advisable to reconsider ongoing land-reform policies considering possible negative externality of land fragmentation as well as irrigation for food security and water sustainability in agriculture. |
| Revised version published in |