The Impact of the Institutional Environment on Irrigation Practices: Econometric Analysis Based on Farming in Charente-maritime, France
Abstract: This paper examines the combined effects of agricultural and environmental policies. The development of irrigation since the 1970s explains much of the disequilibrium observed in many territories between the water resources available and the quantity of anthropogenic traces in water withdrawals. The management of water resources must take into account the policies affecting farming practices, agricultural policy on the one hand, and environmental policy on the other. Despite a process of better integration of environmental issues into agricultural production, certain areas of agricultural policy (in certain contexts of production) result in the continued exertion of pressure on water resources. It is in light of this that we propose here to analyse the issue of whether or not measures in favour of the environment (agri-environmental regulation within the agricultural policy and instruments for managing water demand within the environmental policy) have an effect on the evolution of agricultural practices with respect to water resources. To do this, we chose the Charente-Maritime department (region of Poitou-Charentes, France) as the land area of study, a territory whose characteristics seem to us particularly relevant to our research topic.
