Understanding farmers' preferences for wastewater reuse frameworks in agricultural irrigation : lessons from a choice experiment in the Western Cape, South Africa
Date
2016-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
South African Water Research Commission
Abstract
Wastewater has emerged as an alternative source of water. Since the agricultural sector remains the largest water user
world-wide, it is the main potential user of treated wastewater. However, while there are trade-offs in using wastewater, it
may be the only option in water-scarce regions. South Africa has included water reuse as a policy option; hence the aim
of this study is to understand farmers’ preferences regarding water reuse frameworks for irrigation. A choice modelling
approach was applied to identify the elements defining these frameworks and to quantify their relative importance amongst
farmers in the agricultural hinterland of Cape Town. The findings suggest that water reuse is acceptable to farmers in the
area. Furthermore, they prefer options that guarantee good quality water and low levels of restrictions on use practices. Due
to low trust in water service providers, farmers are willing to pay for a privately-managed scheme for water reuse, which
suggests that the management model for implementing such schemes is important.
Description
CITATION: Saldias, C. et al. 2016. Understanding farmers' preferences for wastewater reuse frameworks in agricultural irrigation : lessons from a choice experiment in the Western Cape, South Africa. Water SA, 42(1):26-37, doi:10.4314/wsa.v42i1.04.
The original publication is available at http://www.wrc.org.za
The original publication is available at http://www.wrc.org.za
Keywords
Water use, Irrigation, Irrigation farming
Citation
Saldias, C. et al. 2016. Understanding farmers' preferences for wastewater reuse frameworks in agricultural irrigation : lessons from a choice experiment in the Western Cape, South Africa. Water SA, 42(1):26-37, doi:10.4314/wsa.v42i1.04.