Introducing Irrigation Water into GTAP Data Base Version 9

Abstract

Water is an essential input in the production processes of all goods and services. However, most economic models ignore water as an essential factor of production. In contrast with other inputs, economic data do not reflect the role of water in the production processes of goods and services and its final value in the demand side. This makes it difficult to incorporate water in economic models, properly examine its role in economic activities, and study its interaction with other inputs in the production processes. Introducing water into an economy-wide database such as Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Data Base which has been widely used by many economic modelers across the world could help them to extend their research agendas on the role and importance of water in economic activities. As the first step towards this direction we divided the crop sectors of the GTAP-Power Data Base (which extends the GTAP Data Base Version 9 by disaggregating the electricity sector) into irrigated and rainfed categories and explicitly included water for irrigation into the cost structure of irrigated crops by river basin at the Agro Ecological Zone (AEZ) level.