The Implicit Value of Irrigation Through Parcel Level Hedonic Price Modeling

This paper relies on data associated 2,100 agricultural land sale transactions across twomajor Nebraska Watersheds (the Republican and Central Platte) over the 2000 to 2008time period. The sales were spatially referenced (digitized into a GIS) in order to quantifyand geo-spatially predict and map the implicit values of irrigation through the use ofhedonic price modeling. Marginal implicit prices vary substantially across subwatersheds(natural resource districts), and the contribution of irrigation to sale prices isdirectly related to the extent to dependency of production agriculture on irrigation.This information is now currently being used to evaluate the economic efficiency ofrecent irrigation retirement programs and to help ensure that current and future retirementprograms are cost-effective through targeting that retires irrigation land with the greatesthydrologic impact on water resources for the lowest cost.