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Abstract
This paper evaluates the possible
consequences of decreasing in the amount of water
provided by the irrigation board to the farms, and
increasing in the unitary water charges that the
irrigation board applies to the farms. The study has
been conducted in a Mediterranean region of southern
Italy where farmers can use water delivered by an
irrigation board and by privately owned wells. The
results of the analysis, performed by means of a
mathematical programming model, show that in both
cases farmers substitute the water supplied by the
irrigation board with that extracted from farm wells.
This generates an over-extraction of resources from the
aquifer leading to likely negative environmental
consequences. This also endangers the economic
sustainability of the irrigation boards, which are
institutions whose activity can be monitored and
influenced by public administration bodies.