Typology of farms and irrigation water demand

Abstract

The major purpose of the pre-feasibility studies for the hydraulic equipment design lies on the assesment of water demand. The diversity of the farmers behaviours, inducing a high heterogeneity in farm strategies, is analysed throught the development of a farm typology. Regarding the modelling prospects, the typology elaboration requires an accurate identification of farm resources, constraints and strategies for the imput model features. The main aspects of the typology development are : an exhaustive farm census carried out on the survey area, a description of farming practices assumed to reveal farmers production strategies. The specificity of this analysis is due to the irrigation framework in which the farm typology is performed and to the use of economic models to derive the demand of irrigation water.