Irrigation Development and Public Water Policy

Excerpt from Irrigation Development and Public Water PolicyThis is a study of the economic and social considerations that are part and parcel of irrigation development and public water policy. No longer can an irrigation project be considered solely in terms of the engineering problems it raises. Indeed, its success depends equally upon economic feasibility and social use. Although the federal government has carried on organized activity in this field for more than fifty years, no comprehensive coverage of the problems in irrigation development has been attempted since 1927, when Ray P. Teele published his notable work on the economics of land reclamation. New concepts, new approaches and procedures, have been applied and ever more attention is being paid to the socioeconomic implications. Admittedly, the problems of irrigated agriculture and its place in public water policy are complicated and controversial; nevertheless, a full, up-to-date survey seems necessary to assess the accomplishments of the past twenty-five years.