The adoption and diffusion of level fields and basins Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Strategic investments in agriculture often are lumpy and irreversible, with significant impacts on operating and fixed costs. Leveling cotton fields to zero slope in central Arizona is a strategic decision made by relatively younger farmers who are farming fine-textured soils in irrigation districts with higher expected water costs. The diffusion of the technology across the region between 1968-89 appears to be both a function of institutional changes (e.g., the Groundwater Management Act of 1980, the Central Arizona Project) and the long-run expected price changes induced by these new policies.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS

author list (cited authors)

  • Anderson, D. P., Wilson, P. N., & Thompson, G. D.

complete list of authors

  • Anderson, DP||Wilson, PN||Thompson, GD

publication date

  • July 1999