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We develop an Israeli version of the Multi-Year Water Allocation System (MYWAS) mathematical programming model to conduct statewide, long-term analyses of three topics associated with agricultural reuse of wastewater. We find that: (1) enabling agricultural irrigation with treated wastewater significantly reduces the optimal capacity levels of seawater and brackish-water desalination over the simulated 3-decade period, and increases Israel's welfare by 3.3 billion USD in terms of present values; (2) a policy requiring desalination of treated wastewater pre-agricultural reuse, as a method to prevent long-run damage to the soil and groundwater, reduces welfare by 2.7 billion USD; hence, such a policy is warranted only if the avoided damages exceed this welfare loss; (3) desalination of treated wastewater in order to increase freshwater availability for agricultural irrigation is not optimal, since the costs overwhelm the generated agricultural benefits. We also find the results associated with these three topics to be sensitive to the natural recharge of Israel's freshwater aquifers, and to the rate at which domestic-water demand evolves due to population and income growth.

This paper develops a regional-level planning model aimed at allocating treated sewage sludge among potential users. The model incorporates, in one endogenous system, the economic, biological and environmental relationships and its objective is to maximize the regional social welfare. A few allocation approaches from the concept of transferable utility games are applied to determine a reasonable and fair allocation of the additional net benefits resulting from regional co-operation which is acceptable to all relevant economic units (players). The analysis is applied to a region in Israel and the results support regional collaboration among the relevant players which increase economic benefits by 19% and enable avoidance of sea pollution.

The article explains the phenomenon of counter-urbanization, which has become prominent in most developed countries. We develop a model that provides an economic rationalization for the observed willingness of incumbent farmers of a rural region to absorb nonfarmer urban migrants. The analytical findings show that counter-urbanization increases the region's welfare-maximizing population, decreases the optimal number of incumbent farmers, and increases the per capita welfare. The empirical results, which are based on data from rural Israel, demonstrate that while the optimal population of farmers decreases slightly, the total optimal population of the region more than triples and farmers' per capita welfare almost doubles. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

The efficiency of agricultural inputs may be reduced by ignoring the inherent variability in soil texture and the non-uniformity of the input's application. This paper focuses on variable-rate irrigation, which is performed via subdivision of the spatially variable field area into a controlled number of individually irrigated management units (MUs). The impact on profits and input decision of the MUs' size, the (technology-dependent) degree of irrigation uniformity, and the (cultivation-dependent) soil properties is investigated. A framework to evaluate the loss from imperfect information about the spatially random soil properties is developed and applied to sweet corn production. The analysis suggests that utilisation of site-specific farming and adoption of improved irrigation and/or cultivation technologies do not guarantee water saving. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.

[1] Following suitable treatment, municipal wastewater can be used for agricultural irrigation; the potential benefit to the agricultural sector is especially significant in arid and semiarid regions, where fresh water is scarce. The analysis focuses on a region which consists of a principal (a wastewater “producer” (a city)), and two competitive agents (water users (two groups of farmers' associations)), who make decisions under conditions of asymmetric information. First, we develop an optimization model aimed at maximizing the principal's profits from conveying treated wastewater without damaging the farmers' reservation utilities or profits. The analysis determines the treated-wastewater allocation, income transfers, and profit allocation among the three assumed economic entities. Contracts composed of transfer payment–wastewater combinations are studied in a mechanism design setting in which the city has incomplete information on the farmers' demand for treated wastewater. The theoretical analysis is applied to the situation in the Sharon region of Israel. The empirical results show that regional cooperation is profitable for all of the involved economic entities.

This paper analyzes the operation of an agricultural multipurpose service cooperative in which family farms are the producer-consumer economic units. The cooperative is aimed at maximizing the utility of its member-patrons. The cooperative provides services and sets prices, taxes, and usage restrictions in conformity with the individual's decision making rules. The cooperative can establish a mode of operation that will induce the individual members to behave in a manner compatible with the requirements for Pareto optimality. The economic stability of the cooperative cannot be guaranteed.

The subject of technological innovations in agriculture has attracted considerable attention among development economists because new technologies offer opportunities to increase income substantially. Immediate and uniform adoption of agricultural innovations is quite rare. Some innovations have been well received while others have been adopted by only a very small group of farmers. The aim of this paper is to identify, estimate and explain the parameters which promote the adoption and speed the rate of diffusion of drip irrigation technology in cotton‐growing. Using cross‐section time‐series regression models, the analysis was applied to a sample of 38 kibbutz cotton‐growers in two regions of Israel. It was found that profitability is the major motive for adoption of drip irrigation in cotton by a profit‐maximizer kibbutz farm. Additional significant explanatory variables which affect the rate of diffusion are detailed in the paper.