Irrigation technology adaptation for a sustainable agriculture: A panel endogenous switching analysis on the Italian farmland productivity

Abstract

Efficient water management in agricultural activities can improve local water resource conditions while enhancing farms’ economic performance. This paper analyses how farmers’ decisions to adopt innovative and sustainable irrigation systems, such as Water Conservation and Saving Technologies (WCSTs), would shape Italian farms’ economic resilience by improving land productivity. Using a Panel Endogenous Switching Regression Model, our results confirm that the WCST adoption is an endogenous and self-selective process and land value is endogenously determined. Seasonal aridity indices are important factors in the choice of WCST adoption, with different effects on non-adopters and adopters. Farmers who adopt WCSTs are more productive than those who do not.