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Financial analysis of wine grape production using regulated deficit irrigation and partial-root zone drying strategies

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Abstract

Cost-benefit analysis was performed to determine the profitability of producing wine grapes under different irrigation regimes. Vines irrigated by regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial root-zone drying (PRD) were compared with vines grown under full irrigation in a typical vineyard in a semiarid environment with scarce water resources (south-eastern Spain) during three consecutive years. Five irrigation treatments were applied. The Control treatment irrigated at 60% of the ETc (Crop evapotranspiration) throughout the orchard cycle. PRD-1 and RDI-1 provided deficit irrigation from fruit set to harvest (irrigated 30% ETc) and post-harvest (45% ETc). PRD-2 and RDI-2 provided deficit irrigation from fruit set to harvest (irrigated 15% ETc) and post-harvest (45% ETc). From an economic point of view, only the Control, PRD-1 and RDI-1 treatments were economically viable since their profitability indicators were positive, although low, especially PRD-1. The more severe deficit irrigated treatments (PRD-2 and RDI-2) were unviable. The most profitable treatment was the Control which had a Net Margin/total cost ratio (NM/C) (representing the overall profitability of the vineyard) of 25.37% compared with the 1.90% of RDI-1 and 0.57% of PRD-1. The threshold price of water indicates that only the Control remains profitable with higher water prices of up to 0.46 € m−3. When the cost-benefit analysis took into account the extra quality achieved in PRD-2 and RDI-2, it indicated that these treatments, which were otherwise economically unviable, achieved high returns (17 and 16%, respectively) and were close to the Control treatment. Thus, a low or moderate bonus that encourages extra berry quality for premium wine production would make deficit irrigation practices profitable. Moreover, the financial indices estimated suggest that in the present situation, and with our soil and climatic conditions, PRD is less economically profitable (higher installation cost, lower NM/C, and threshold price of water) than RDI under the same conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financed by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Subprograma Nacional de Recursos y Tecnologías Agrarias through the Project RTA2005-00103-00-00 and with the collaboration of The Fondo Social Europeo. Pascual Romero-Azorin gratefully acknowledges a doctoral contract in INIA-CCAA system supplied by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) co-financed with European Social Fund. We would like to thank Atanasio Molina Molina and Aniceto Turpin Bermejo for his cooperation in the vineyard management and Juan Jose García Sánchez, Jose María Rodriguez de Vera-Beltrí and Jose Ignacio Fernández-Fernández for their field assistance and support with the lab analysis. We also thank Michael Thomlinson for assistance with the manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to P. Romero.

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Communicated by I. Dodd.

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García García, J., Martínez-Cutillas, A. & Romero, P. Financial analysis of wine grape production using regulated deficit irrigation and partial-root zone drying strategies. Irrig Sci 30, 179–188 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-011-0274-4

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