Assessment of price changes on water resources (Case study Khorasan Razavi province)

One of the major challenges of this century is the optimal utilization of water resources to reduce crisis and successive droughts in the country. In this study, firstly the optimal water allocation and cropping patterns were analyzed in the fields of Kashmar and Khalil Abad, due to changes in expected crop prices and water prices growth for the period of 2005-2012. Secondly, a stochastic programming model which is also able to involve risk and uncertainty estimated a suitable crops program. In the study, a programming model targeted MOTAD (TMOTAD) is used to minimize the risk. The results show that the optimization of farming patterns and irrigation water allocation might significantly assist the sustainability of water resources and reducing the drought. Optimum solution results regard to gross profits risk also express that water demand elasticity are relatively elastic for price increases.

optimal cropping pattern; water allocation; plain Kashmar; reducing water crisis; Target Model MOTAD