The Survey of Irrigation Demand Management on Water Resources Balance and Farmers Economic Welfare (case study: Neyshabour Basin)

Climate change, population growth and non-optimal utilization of water resources are doubling the need to pay attention to the conservation and sustainability of this essential input in agricultural production. Therefore, the use of water demand management can be used as a method for more principled use of water resources. In this study, the economic model and system dynamics method (SD) were used to study the demand management policy for the balance of groundwater resources in the Neyshabour basin area. The policies under consideration include allocating water to the agricultural sector and increasing irrigation efficiency. The results showed that the policy of reducing irrigation water's share has a positive effect on the groundwater level without having a significant effect on reducing crop cultivation and, consequently, reducing the agricultural productivity of farmers in the region. Also, increasing the irrigation efficiency in relation to the policy of reducing agricultural water allocation showed the better condition in groundwater level and the profitability of crop farmers. So that the maximum amount of change in agricultural gross profit of the region decreased by 10% and the minimum improvement in groundwater level of the basin was 47.0 meters. In order to investigate the future status of water resources in the Neyshabour basin was studied the policy of reducing water share in simulation of basin ground water resources. The results showed that up to 20 percent reduction in agricultural water, the groundwater level will rise by about 7.4 meters to 1403, and will be closer to balance. The analysis of the results suggests that implementation of the policy of increasing irrigation efficiency along with decreasing agricultural water's share will have a more effect on the balance of the basin.