Examining Cotton Yields Resulting from the Use of Various Irrigation Systems in the Texas South Plains Using Propensity-Score Matching

Implementing a quasi-experimental method known as propensity-score matching, this paper utilizes cotton growing site data from the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation project in the Texas South Plains to generate inferences as to the causal relationship between methods of irrigation and cotton yields. Existing research shows that the benefits associated with the adoption of subsurface drip irrigation systems tend to be outweighed by the investment costs. The gains materialize mostly in the form of increased yields but also because the systems lend themselves to strategic management practices. Traditionally, effects on yields have been estimated through standard ordinary least squares regressions which this study finds either underestimate or overestimate the impact of more efficient irrigation systems. As other studies have found, sites that used furrow or center pivot irrigation systems could have produced higher yields had they been using a subsurface drip irrigation system.