Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation, and discuss how it is affected by climate change and tubewell density in rural China. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a nine-province village survey and secondary...

Inefficient performance of irrigation systems not only leads to a waste of water resources, but may also affect agriculture production, especially in regions facing a water stress problem. In rural China, only 40% of the water allocated to irrigation is effectively used, a figure much lower than...

Paper replaced with revised version 06/03/08

A multinomial logit model is estimated across the crop choices of a sample of thousands of Chinese farmers. As temperatures warm, farmers are more likely to choose cotton and maize, but less likely to choose soybeans, and vegetables. As precipitation increases, farmers are more likely to choose...

Determinants for farmers' choice of water-saving land improvements in Northern China are analyzed with a sample survey of 401 villages. The econometric results of this study indicate that farmers are willing to adopt water-saving land improvements and change water use behavior when water is less...

Several studies addressing the supply and demand for food in China suggest that the nation can largely meet its needs in the coming decades. However, these studies do not consider the effects of climate change. This paper examines whether near future expected changes in climate are likely to...