Connotation, calculation and influencing factors of the water-use rights benchmark price: A case study of agricultural water use in the Ningxia Yellow River irrigation area

Abstract

The water-use rights trading system fully embodies a new concept of water resources management of the ‘water saving priority’ and market-oriented governance. The price mechanism is a core component of this system, and the benchmark price is its cornerstone. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the connotation and characteristics of the water-use rights benchmark price (WURBP). Based on the Marxist labor theory of value and land rent theory, it is proposed that the WURBP should be the economic embodiment of the water-use rights value. Considering the case of the Ningxia Yellow River irrigated area, a WURBP calculation model was established using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to calculate the agricultural WURBP. The obstacle degree model was introduced to analyze the main factors affecting the WURBP. Results show that the WURBP for food crops in the Ningxia Yellow River irrigation area is 0.252 yuan/m3, and 0.652 yuan/m3 for cash crops. Water yield coefficient, runoff coefficient, per capita GDP, farmland irrigation utilization coefficient, and ecological water consumption have gradually become the primary obstacles affecting agricultural WURBP. Water administrative departments should adjust the WURBP according to the actual situation. This paper innovatively puts forward the concept of WURBP. These results have important practical significance for improving China's agricultural water-use rights trading price system.