Fossil Fuels – At What Cost? Government support for upstream oil activities in three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador and the related Summary of Key Findings
The GSI's irrigation country case studies identify and quantify irrigation subsidies in a variety of countries. These studies provide detailed insight into the extent of government support to the sector, and provide a starting point for assessing the impacts of these subsidies.
A GSI study on irrigation subsidies in India estimates that public support for major irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh was around US$ 282 million per year during 2004 to 2008. Based on these data, it estimates that subsidies in the four south Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala) are worth around US$ 580 million per year.
This report estimates that subsidies to irrigated agriculture in major projects in just the four south Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala) were conservatively at least US$ 579 million per year from 2004 to 2008. The full subsidy is certainly substantially larger, as significant numbers of small- to medium-size schemes and substantial electricity subsidies to private groundwater irrigators were not included in the study.
The GSI's one-day seminar on irrigation subsidies brought together journalists, media representatives, researchers and experts from international organizations, NGOs, universities and the agricultural sector.
The GSI invited the general public to join a discussion on the crucial issues surrounding the measurement and analysis of irrigation subsidies at the launch of the study Measuring Irrigation Subsidies in Spain - An Application of the GSI Method for Quantifying Subsidies. The event was chaired by IISD President, Franz Tattenbach.
This study reviews all relevant public data sources on irrigation subsidy policies for a variety of geographical areas and from a range of political and institutional sources, based largely on information that Spain is required to report to the European Union, as well as a number of national public bodies, including the Autonomous Political Communities and River Basin Authorities.
A discussion paper published in June by the GSI aims to encourage the development of an internationally recognized methodology for quantifying irrigation subsidies. To date, a variety of methods have been used to measure subsidies for irrigation. The fact that these methods are not comparable has hampered efforts to discipline subsidies at an international level.*
