This study also shows that the effective policy depends on the social, economics, and
environmental contexts of specific regions. For countries like Egypt where most of land is
irrigated, N-fertilizer tax, energy tax, and output tax on water-intensive and low profit crop
production may be more effective than others. Morocco has both irrigated land and rain-fed land.
Water pricing and output tax policies are better suited and effective for Morocco than water
complementary input factor taxation. For example, energy tax policy is a comparatively less
effective policy in Morocco, although it works well in Egypt. Findings from Morocco might be
generalized to other countries with similar irrigation characteristics.
The Morocco case may be more compelling because of its diversity in irrigated (public
and private) and rain-fed land. Taxation on crop inputs and outputs not only affect water use in
the public irrigation sector, but private irrigation sector and rain-fed as a whole. There was an
increase of welfare in the agricultural sector in Morocco from the model results. The irrigation
policy on public irrigation system can improve the land allocation and hence increase welfare
gains in rain-fed areas.
Limitation and Further Research
The research undertaken here is very important given the lack of information on irrigation policy
with respect to water complementary input factors and high water-intensive low profit crops. The
results demonstrated that it is a beneficial area of research for these two countries and should
receive more attention. However, policy makers should consider that taxation policies on input
and output factors are intervention tools that affect not only production, but the agricultural
sector and the rest of economy as a whole. In the long run, prices, market conditions, and
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