Agricultural Water Price Reform: Accounting and Allocation of Initial Agricultural Water Rights at County Scale

Due to the increased imbalance between water supply and water demand since the 1980s, especially the increase in agricultural water usage, China has undergone four stages in reforming agricultural water price since 2006: initial stage, in-depth pilot stage, comprehensive promotion stage, and policy classification stage. The focus of policy has also shifted from so-called “extensive” to “intensive”. From 2016 to 2020, over 28.7 million hectares of farmlands across the country have been reformed in the country. The comprehensive reform of agricultural water price is a systematic project, and this paper aims to explore a comprehensive, practical, and operational initial water rights accounting and distribution scheme for agriculture at county scale. The scheme can provide guidance for smooth implementation of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price. We first provide a brief introduction to the current situation of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price in China and then identify the ke