Papers by Nicolas Quintana Ashwell
Agricultural Water Management, 2024
Field level data from a voluntary water use reporting program in the Delta region of Mississippi ... more Field level data from a voluntary water use reporting program in the Delta region of Mississippi (MS), USA, provides empirical evidence that crop growers increase the amount of groundwater pumped for irrigation during periods of high temperature (degree days above 32 C). Regression analysis reveals that growers apply excess irrigation to cope with high temperature conditions while growing season evapotranspiration and precipitation are not significant factors in their decision of how much irrigation to apply. The existing literature indicates that excess water does not alleviate the harmful effect of extreme heat, making the excess irrigation wasteful and costly. Additional degree days above 32 C are associated with a 4.6 mm increase in irrigation depth (46 m3ha−1). This result may be partially explained by the fact that most farmers use visual cues (such as leaf folding which correlate with air temperature) to initiate irrigation events regardless of soil moisture contents. To quantify the impact of this mismatch, we estimate that shifting the underlying sensitivity in the farmers’ minds by 1 C would reduce groundwater pumpage by 800862 mega liters across the Delta region of Mississippi, USA. The monetary cost of mismanaging heat stress with excessive irrigation is estimated at a minimum of over US$33 million per year. We further identify two additional possible distortions affecting the demand for irrigation groundwater: (i) overestimated benefits from irrigation; and (ii) underestimated groundwater pumping cost. The policy implication is that more efforts and incentives should be placed for programs that affect the producers’ water management mindset, such as "Master Irrigator" programs that will reduce or eliminate the identified groundwater distortions and optimize benefits from irrigation.
arXiv (Cornell University), Sep 15, 2023
Agricultural Water Management
Journal of Environmental Management
Sagebrush ecosystems of the western U.S. support ranching livelihoods and imperiled populations o... more Sagebrush ecosystems of the western U.S. support ranching livelihoods and imperiled populations of the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Incentive-based conservation such as cost-sharing is the primary tool used by the federal government to support conservation practices on rangelands in the U.S. Financial support for adopting specific prescribed grazing practices on private land has been supported through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)-led Sage-Grouse Initiative (SGI), initiated in 2010 as an unparalleled private and public effort to conserve Greater Sage-grouse habitat. The purpose of this research was to provide an economic assessment of the impact of this conservation program on participating ranches. Representative ranch enterprise budgets and ranch economic models were created for this analysis for eleven NRCS Major Land Resource Areas where critical sage-grouse habitat exist, including parts of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. Results of the economic assessment showed that SGI/NRCS financial support alleviated the financial impact of conservation practice adoption, but negative financial impacts were estimated in some locations and more frequently for smaller ranches. Larger ranches were found to do better under these programs on average. Results demonstrate the important role of research and government financial support in removing financial barriers to conservation adoption on rangelands.
Land
The challenge of a depleting Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) requires reducing ... more The challenge of a depleting Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) requires reducing groundwater withdrawal for irrigation, increasing aquifer recharge, and protecting water quality for sustainable water use. To meet the challenge, the National Center for Alluvial Aquifer Research (NCAAR) is oriented towards producing scientific work aimed at improving irrigation methods and scheduling, employing alternative water sources, and improving crop management and field practices to increase water use efficiency across the region. Big data is key for NCAAR success. Its scientists use big data for research in the form of various soil, weather, geospatial, and water monitoring and management devices to collect agronomic or hydrogeologic data. They also produce, process, and analyze big data which are converted to scientific publications and farm management recommendations via technology transfer. Similarly, decision tools that would help producers leverage the wealth of data they ...
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics
We explore the economic merits of on-farm water storage with tailwater recovery systems to reduce... more We explore the economic merits of on-farm water storage with tailwater recovery systems to reduce aquifer depletion in a region with expanding irrigated acreage and substantial off-season precipitation. Gains are substantial on a broad scale and long planning horizon, including more than $4 billion in producer surplus, 5 million acre-feet of conserved groundwater, and land capitalization of $24 per acre. Sensitivity analyses provide insights with respect to the impact of discount rates, rainfed returns, return flows, and aquifer recharge rates. Results can inform stakeholders about the optimal allocation of funds directed at agricultural practice adoption and agricultural water investments.
The two studies presented in this dissertation examine incentives for groundwater extraction and ... more The two studies presented in this dissertation examine incentives for groundwater extraction and their resulting effect on aquifer depletion. Both studies apply dynamic optimization methods in a context of irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions such as in western Kansas. The first study examines the effects of capital subsidies aimed at increasing irrigation application efficiency. The second study examines the effects of changing incentives posed by changes in climatic patterns and by technical progress in the form of increasing crop water productivity. Both studies have significant policy and groundwater management implications. Subsidies for the adoption of (more) efficient irrigation technologies are commonly proposed and enacted with the goal of achieving water conservation. These subsidies are more politically feasible than water taxes or water use restrictions. The reasoning behind this type of policy is that increased application efficiency makes it possible to ...
Translational Animal Science, 2021
Beef cattle ranching and farming is a major agricultural industry in the U.S. that manages an est... more Beef cattle ranching and farming is a major agricultural industry in the U.S. that manages an estimated 147 million ha of private land and uses approximately 92% of forage authorized for grazing on federal rangelands. Rangelands, as working landscapes, sustain beef cattle ranching while providing habitat for wildlife, recreation and open space amenities, as well as spiritual and cultural values that define a way of life. Historically, discussions regarding the economics of beef cattle ranching have focused primarily on the value of beef production but have more recently expanded to consider related ecosystem services. A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature published between 1998 to 2018, found 154 articles that considered ecosystem services from rangelands/grasslands. Of these, only two articles (1%) provided an in-depth economic valuation (monetary measure) of ecosystem services in the U.S. To fill this knowledge gap, we primarily used publicly available data to conduct an...
Agronomy, Apr 7, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Agronomy, 2022
The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) is being depleted, and practices that impro... more The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) is being depleted, and practices that improve water stewardship have been developed to reduce drawdown. This study assesses how Mississippi Delta producers changed their perceptions of these practices over time. The analysis employs data from two surveys carried-out in 2012 and 2014 of all Mississippi permittees who held an agricultural well permit drawing from the MRVAA. Focusing on water-saving practices, this study found that producer perception of the usability of flowmeters improved over time. About 80% and 90% more producers growing corn and soybeans, respectively, felt that computerized hole selection was highly efficient. In 2014, 38% of corn and 35% of soybean producers believed that shortened furrow length was a highly efficient practice—up from 21% in corn and 24% in soybean producers in 2012. Approval of irrigation automation, moisture probes, and other irrigation technology rose from 75%of producers in 2012 to 88% by...
A dynamic optimization framework is applied to the problem where groundwater stock and the state ... more A dynamic optimization framework is applied to the problem where groundwater stock and the state of technology and the climate are the state variables and groundwater pumping is the control variable and the objective is to maximize the net present value of the stream of rents from irrigation over the life of the aquifer. Dynamical systems govern the evolution of the aquifer, the climate, and the rate of technical progress. These dynamical systems may be dependent upon periodic groundwater allocations, as in the case of the aquifer, or independent of the periodic allocations as in the case of climate and technical change. Alternative plans are considered where the planner ignores one or more of the state variables when prescribing an extraction path. The ``information effect'' in these plans is assessed by comparing extraction, depletion, and rents from irrigation paths. A well accepted formulation of hydrologic dynamics for the aquifer is employed and simple dynamic trends f...
Resource and Energy Economics, 2018
Agronomy, 2020
This article identifies irrigated row-crop farmer factors associated with the adoption of water-c... more This article identifies irrigated row-crop farmer factors associated with the adoption of water-conserving practices. The analysis is performed on data from a survey of irrigators in Mississippi. Regression results show that the amount of irrigated area, years of education, perception of a groundwater problem, and participation in conservation programs are positively associated with practice adoption; while number of years farming, growing rice, and pumping cost are negatively associated with adoption. However, not all factors are statistically significant for all practices. Survey results indicate that only a third of growers are aware of groundwater problems at the farm or state level; and this lack of awareness is related to whether farmers noticed a change in the depth to water distance in their irrigation wells. This evidence is consistent with a report to Congress from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that recommends policies promoting the use of: (1) more efficient ...
Agronomy Journal
Twin-row planting in soybean (L.) has been proposed for optimizing Glycine max resource use and s... more Twin-row planting in soybean (L.) has been proposed for optimizing Glycine max resource use and seed yield. Experiments were conducted in and on a Dundee silt loam to assess soybean seed yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) in response to single-row (SR) and twin-row (TR) planting geometries under rainfed (RF), all row or full irrigation (FI), and alternate row or half irrigations (HI). Averaged across two crop years and three irrigation regimes, TR
Rangeland management practitioners typically agree that prescribed grazing practices have a posit... more Rangeland management practitioners typically agree that prescribed grazing practices have a positive impact on rangeland health with positive implications for ranching productivity. The economic impact of implementing these practices, however, is insufficiently explored. This article assesses the impact of two variants of NRCSpromoted prescribed grazing programs on the profitability of four ranch types in Northern Montana. Preliminary results suggest that outcomes are highly dependent on initial ranch conditions and the level and type of financial incentives. Ranches with large tracts of deeded land and insufficient water developments stand to gain the most from adopting prescribed grazing practices.
A dynamic optimization framework is applied to the problem where groundwater stock and the state ... more A dynamic optimization framework is applied to the problem where groundwater stock and the state of technology and the climate are the state variables and groundwater pumping is the control variable and the objective is to maximize the net present value of the stream of rents from irrigation over the life of the aquifer. Dynamical systems govern the evolution of the aquifer, the climate, and the rate of technical progress. These dynamical systems may be dependent upon periodic groundwater allocations, as in the case of the aquifer, or independent of the periodic allocations as in the case of climate and technical change. Alternative plans are considered where the planner ignores one or more of the state variables when prescribing an extraction path. The information "eff ect" in these plans is assessed by comparing extraction, depletion, and rents from irrigation paths. A well accepted formulation of hydrologic dynamics for the aquifer is employed and simple dynamic trends ...
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Papers by Nicolas Quintana Ashwell