Sectoral evaluation of water use in Brazil: a computable general equilibrium analysis (CGE)

This dissertation aimed to verify how expansions of irrigated area in the country would increase the regional water use. For this, the scenarios described in the National Water Resources Plan (PNRH in Portuguese) were used as policy for expansion of irrigation in the country. The scenarios related are scenario 1 (water for all), scenario 2 (water for some) and scenario 3 (water for few), and are hypothetical situations reported by the plan. These scenarios were adapted with the information about irrigable areas described by Ministry of National Integration (MI) on the Territorial Analysis for the Development of Irrigated Agriculture. A computable general equilibrium model namely TERM-BR was used in the simulation, this is dynamic, bottom-up, interregional model for simulations of scenarios for water. The Thornthwaite and Mather method was employed to estimate the Climatic Water Balance (CWB) for Northeastern states and to assess the water availability situation under specific conditions in that region. Several studies were compiled to elaborate the database; some with municipal information (agriculture and human consumption) and others with state information (livestock and industry). Crop productivity, and planted and harvested areas were also used. The results suggest that the expansions in the national irrigated areas would provide positive changes in macroeconomic variables such as household consumption, investment, government spending, exports, and national GDP. Mato Grosso state would stand out in all the scenarios regarding regional macroeconomic variables, and change in regional GDP and investment would be greater in scenario 1. Expansions in the Center-West and North regions are feasible in all scenarios, especially in Mato Grosso, Goiás, Tocantins, Pará and Minas Gerais state. The highest percentage change in water use would occur in soybeans and cotton crops and the largest volume of water use (millions of cubic meters) would occur in sugar cane and rice crop. The results for the interaction between the TERM-BR model and CWB method for the Northeastern states indicate that, Alagoas and Pernambuco state would be the most likely to have problems with water availability. The increase in water use by hydrographic region is consistent with that proposed in the PNRH, and this increase should be higher in the Tocantins-Araguaia hydrographic regions (Tocantins, Pará, Mato Grosso and Goiás) and in the Western Northeast Atlantic in Maranhão and Pará state. (AU)