Book contents
- Riverflow
- Riverflow
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Maps
- Foreword: Marching Away from Folly
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Publicum Ius Aquae
- 1 Instream Rights and the Public Trust
- 2 Instream Rights and Unreasonable Use
- 3 Instream Rights and Dams
- 4 Instream Rights and Watershed Governance
- 5 Instream Rights as Federal Law Recedes
- 6 Instream Rights as Water Temperatures Rise
- 7 Instream Rights as Sea Levels Rise
- 8 Instream Rights and Groundwater Extraction
- 9 Instream Rights and Old Canals
- 10 Instream Rights and Water as an Investment
- 11 Instream Rights and International Law
- 12 Instream Rights and Irrigation Subsidies
- 13 Instream Rights and Pacific Salmon
- 14 Instream Rights and Hatchery Fish
- 15 Instream Rights as Indigenous Rights
- Conclusion Policy Disconnected from Science
- About the Author
- Index
12 - Instream Rights and Irrigation Subsidies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2021
- Riverflow
- Riverflow
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Maps
- Foreword: Marching Away from Folly
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Publicum Ius Aquae
- 1 Instream Rights and the Public Trust
- 2 Instream Rights and Unreasonable Use
- 3 Instream Rights and Dams
- 4 Instream Rights and Watershed Governance
- 5 Instream Rights as Federal Law Recedes
- 6 Instream Rights as Water Temperatures Rise
- 7 Instream Rights as Sea Levels Rise
- 8 Instream Rights and Groundwater Extraction
- 9 Instream Rights and Old Canals
- 10 Instream Rights and Water as an Investment
- 11 Instream Rights and International Law
- 12 Instream Rights and Irrigation Subsidies
- 13 Instream Rights and Pacific Salmon
- 14 Instream Rights and Hatchery Fish
- 15 Instream Rights as Indigenous Rights
- Conclusion Policy Disconnected from Science
- About the Author
- Index
Summary
There are competing demands for fresh water. Farms look to it as an irrigation source, cities rely on it for drinking water, and fisheries and fishermen depend on it for instream flow. When governments subsidize the costs of providing fresh water for irrigation in agricultural production, such subsidization can result in tiered water pricing. With tiered pricing, agricultural producers pay the government less than other water users. This tiered pricing can distort the water marketplace in a manner that can encourage wasteful irrigation practices and that can leave insufficient water instream for fisheries.
As the authors of the book Legal Control of Water Resources explained, in reference to irrigation subsidies in the United States, “[S]ubsidies have lessened water users’ fiscal incentive to conserve. There is far less reason to invest in expensive irrigation control or to line canals when you are receiving water for only a fraction of the costs.”1 This same dynamic is true outside of the United States, such as subsidized irrigation for rice-growing in India and Japan and subsidized irrigation for cotton-growing in Brazil.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- RiverflowThe Right to Keep Water Instream, pp. 210 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021