Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

2017 Annual Meeting | Oct. 22-25 | Tampa, FL

107973 Developing Economically Optimal Irrigation for Soybean Production in East Central Mississippi.

Poster Number 1420

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Climatology and Modeling
See more from this Session: Soil-Plant-Water Relations Poster (includes student competition)

Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Tampa Convention Center, East Exhibit Hall

Xiaofei Li, Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, Gary Feng, PO Box 5367 810 Highway 12 East, USDA-ARS, Mississippi State, MS, Dennis Reginelli, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS and Johnie N. Jenkins, USDA-ARS, Mississippi State, MS
Abstract:
Water stress is one of crucial limiting factors for soybean production in east central Mississippi. A large number of research have stud ied the effect of irrigation on soybean yield. But most of them are targeting on the maximization of grain yield, while profitability of irrigation is usually more of a concern from producers’ perspective. Depending on the irrigation system installation costs, water price, and soybean price, the yield-maximizing irrigation water amount can be far from profit-maximizing. However, in the current literature, studies that directly address the profit-maximizing irrigation water amount are still relatively rare.

This study builds upon the existing research of irrigation’s effect on soybean productivity, and incorporates prices and cost information to further develop the economically optimal irrigation management for soybean producers. The objective was achieved through three steps: (1) use the APEX model to simulate soybean yields under various conditions,; (2) use a multiple regression model to estimate the continuous response of yield to water stress level, especially how the response interacts with different soil, weather and location conditions; (3) incorporate the price and cost information to the estimated yield-water response relationship, and set up the profitability maximization problem with various constraints (budget, water capacity, etc.), and solve for it using mathematic programming techniques.

The results showed that the economically optimal supplementary irrigation water amount varies substantially across locations, soil types, rainfall conditions, water costs and soybean market prices. In most cases, the profit-maximizing irrigation amount differs greatly from the yield-maximizing irrigation amount, with also a considerably different profit gap. Those results can serve as guidelines of building budget tables for soybean irrigation to assist producers for improving profitability under different conditions and price scenarios.

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Climatology and Modeling
See more from this Session: Soil-Plant-Water Relations Poster (includes student competition)