Economic Valuation of Water Resources in Agriculture

Agriculture is coming under more and more pressure to justify its use of the world's freshwater resources and to improve its productive and environmental performance. The allocations of raw water to agriculture (and the allocations within the agriculture sector) all need to be negotiated in a transparent way. This report reviews the large set of literature on the subject and makes the case for the adoption of a functional approach to water valuation as a basis for such negotiation.