ABSTRACT
Tulare Basin farmers believe they are practicing conservation and farming efficiently, and that any deficits in water supply resulting from overdrafting the groundwater aquifers should be made up by importation. Discussions of agricultural water conservation ought to make the public more aware of the differences between on-farm, off-farm, basin-wide and where part of the supply is imported from another basin--interbasin water management efficiency. The potentiality for higher irrigation efficiency in any setting depends on particular physical and institutional features of that setting. The information necessary to determine the area-specific potentiality for higher irrigation efficiency is growing, but even in an area as productive and comparatively efficient as the Tulare Basin adequate information is wanting. The effort to improve irrigation efficiency should be examined in context of water and agricultural management policy generally. The fundamental determinant of the level of both on-farm and off-farm efficiency is the opportunity or possibility of making an increased profit through adoption of conservation practices.
