The adoption and diffusion of level fields and basins

Strategic investments in agriculture often are lumpy and irreversible, with significant impacts on operating and fixed costs. Leveling cotton fields t o zero slope in central Arizona is a strategic decision made by relatively younger farmers who are farming fine-textured soils in irrigation districts with higher expected water costs. The diffusion of the technology across t he region between 1968-89 appears to be both a function of institutional ch anges (e.g., the Groundwater Management Act of 1980, the Central Arizona Pr oject) and the long-ran expected price changes induced by these new policie s.