MANAGEMENT OF MODERN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS IN OMAN - ALLOCATIVE VS. IRRIGATION EFFICIENCY

Irrigation efficiency as a standard engineering measure has been tradi tionally used to assess water use management. Allocative efficiency as applied in production economics theory provides an alternative measur e of irrigation performance. Both concepts are used in this study to i nvestigate water efficiency levels for irrigated crops in the Batinah region of Oman under modern irrigation methods. While irrigation effic iency focuses on the technical aspect of water management, allocative efficiency is more directed to the economic aspects and has bearing on the economic sustainability of the system. Both estimates of irrigati on efficiency and allocative efficiency show the presence of inefficie ncies as a result of underuse of water resources. In a few cases, howe ver, allocative efficiency show the possibility of overuse of irrigati on water which could be the result of small-sized farms using water mo re extensively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.