Faculty of Science and Technology

Reduced rainfall and water allocation uncertainty in agriculture is a significant problem in the region of Murcia, Spain. The adoption of more efficient irrigation technology is required in order to increase productivity while maintaining or reducing the amount of water used for irrigation. Currently, over 90% of farmers in the region have drip irrigation. With drip irrigation, farmers can adopt a more efficient watering schedule that takes into account temperature, rainfall and other factors that have an impact on plant growth. However, it is unclear whether farmers are willing to make an effort to adopt the new watering schedule and whether the current institutional arrangements would encourage the uptake of this new watering regime. Sorada will be presenting her research on the application of non-market valuation techniques to evaluate the social, economic and institutional factors that impact on farmers' decision to adopt more efficient irrigation technology in the Murcia region of Spain.

About Sorada:

Sorada is a Resource Economist with the Social Behavioral Sciences Group of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences in Western Australia. Her work centres around the application of social and economic instruments to assist in efficient and equitable management of scarce natural resources and to help households, local governments and state governments to adapt to climate change. Sorada also holds an Adjunct Lecturer position at the School of Agricultural Resource Economics, University of Western Australia. Currently, Sorada is a visiting Research Fellow at the Departmento de Economia de la Empresa, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Spain. She is part of the SIRRIMED project which looks like the appropriate water governance structure that would assist in the adoption of more efficient irrigation technology in the Tajo and Segura River Basins in Spain.