Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

• 

  A recursive programming analysis of water conservation in Arizona agriculture : a study of the Phoenix active management area

  Lierman, Wally Kent. (The University of Arizona., 1983)

  Arizona agriculture faces many changes in the near future. One of the most imminent changes will come from the enactment of the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act. The 1980 AGWMA is designed ultimately to curtail the use of groundwater in Arizona. Agriculture will be affected since this sector used approximately 87 percent of all water in the State in 1980. This study reports on the possible effects that a proposed pump tax and water duty policy would have on agriculture within the Phoenix Active Management Area. The PAMA is one of four such areas in the State that have been identified as needing groundwater use management. The results of this study indicate that the proposed water duty is more effective in curbing groundwater use than the proposed pump tax. Investment in more water application efficient irrigation technologies is also important in this study. However, substantial amounts of capital investment funds will be needed to begin this investment.
• 

  The implications of recent amendments to the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954

  Gotsch, William Paul, 1943- (The University of Arizona., 1970)
• 

  Evaluation of arid land food production systems : strategies for Saudi Arabian agriculture

  Al-Shiekh, Abdulmalek. (The University of Arizona., 1983)

  This dissertation is based upon a research project designed to identify and evaluate alternative agricultural systems which are applicable to the arid environment of Saudi Arabia within a multiobjective context. The four systems are: traditional; conventional; aridity-oriented; and, controlled environment. These systems differ in their utilization of basic resources, the the amount and type of food they produce, the profits they generate and their compatibility with Saudi Arabian social traditions. Thus, the environmental and sociological consequences of their implementation were considered along with production and economic aspects. The procedure for evaluating the alternative agricultural systems is a computer program called ESAP (Evaluation and Sensitivity Analysis Program) which uses multi-attribute theory as an aid to decision making. Computations to determine the extent of that achievement are essentially a weighting of the variables identified as subdivisions of the goals. Decision makers are also required to give the relative values to the variables, and to select a particular utility function which describes the relationship between value and utility. The values assigned to each variable are usually presented as a range to express the users' uncertainty. Six consultants (five university professors plus the author) with varying professional backgrounds and knowledge of Saudi Arabian conditions were used as individual and collective decision makers to evaluate the four agricultural systems and their combinations. The procedure resulted in grouping these ten different alternatives (four systems plus combinations of any two) into three independent classes: I, Il and III. The grouping was based upon obtaining a clear distinction in overall score between the classes. The grouping into classes resulted in the aridity-oriented agricultural system being the only alternative in Class I. The consultants felt that this system offered the most favorable tradeoff between the economic benefits and the social and environmental factors. In general, the study indicated that the protection of natural resources and the maintenance of cultural factors should be given significant influence along with the economic factors in evaluating a particular plan of action. In utilizing such a procedure, the need for additional data and research became very evident, if there is to be better allocation of the Kingdom's agricultural resources.