Page 7 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.70, # 1, 2013, pp. 4-22

In the Panhandle area, of the water obtained from the Ogallala Aquifer,

approximately 90 percent is used for irrigation (Amosson et al., 2006).

The Ogallala Aquifer, however, is essentially a closed basin and withdrawals

greatly exceed the recharge, which together with the overdraft for irrigation have

led to a severe decline in its water table (Colaizzi et al., 2008). It was estimated

that the total water in storage in 2009 was about 2.9 billion acre-feet, which was a

decline of about 273 million acre-feet (or about 9 percent) since predevelopment.

The area-weighted,average water-level change from predevelopment to 2009 was a

decline of 14 feet and the water-level change in aquifer levels in different states

ranges from an increase of 84 feet in Nebraska to a 234 feet decrease in Texas

(McGuir, 2011) (table 1).

In order to conserve the water extracted from the Ogallala Aquifer for

irrigation, irrigation technology has been improved in the Panhandle area. As a

result, center pivot increased steadily from 1989 and more rapidly thereafter,

reaching 72 percent by 2000 (Colaizzi et al., 2008).

Despite efficiency of the central pivot system, especially when designed with

LEPA or LESA irrigation packages which are highly applied in the Texas

Panhandle area, Studies show that irrigators generally tend to over irrigate when

compared to actual crop requirements (Marek, 1996). This is especially true for

irrigated corn, which is a major commodity within the area due to the intensive,

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