Assessing potential efficiency gains in irrigated water use in New Zealand.

This paper reports a research project carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry New Zealand designed to scope the issue of water efficiency in New Zealand and demonstrate where the most significant gains in efficiency can occur. The paper describes the efficiency framework developed based on the key areas of allocative, technical and dynamic efficiency. The areas of significant gains based on the theoretical analysis are tested against three community irrigation schemes. Although the case study findings support the theoretical conclusions there is a significant range of potential areas of improvement according to the nature of each case study.