ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the economic dimensions of irrigation with water of varying salinity levels, with emphasis on on-farm irrigation problems. Irrigation with saline water is a dynamic stochastic process. The objective function is to maximize the present value of the expected net profits from the yields of crops over the time horizon, subject to total water and land supplies, acreage quotas for certain crops, and linear balance equations which describe the evolution of the soil-related state variables over time. Water rights, if firmly practiced under conditions of increasing water salinity, may lead in some regions to the question of what is fair compensation for the deterioration of water quality. The yield and income losses accrued to farms under conditions of irrigation with saline water depend, to a considerable extent, on the farms' crop mix and the share of salinity-sensitive crops.
