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Abstract
Adoption and abandonment processes are analyzed for seven irrigation technologies. A
procedure is developed to estimate the technology cycle and applied to data available for
citrus groves in several regions of Israel, and Gaza. The technology cycle was used to
estimate diffusion-abandonment patterns for several irrigation technologies that have been
abandoned. Results suggest that the technology cycle is unique to each technology and
similar in length for all regions. Results predict the year of full abandonment of each
technology. For modern technologies still in the diffusion phase, a logistic equation was
fitted to the aggregated data. Results suggest that diffusion is significantly affected by
economic variables such as water price, crop yield price, and subsidy for irrigation equipment.
Use of the estimated equations for policy purposes suggest that water price and
subsidy for irrigation equipment can be used to control the diffusion process (speed and
ceiling) of the irrigation technologies.