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<br />tation strategies. The first of these strategies and related <br />implementing programs to manage water demand would encourage and <br />rely upon voluntary water conservation practices to extend the life <br />of the Ogallala aquifer, supplemented where needed by the second <br />strategy of mandatory or regulatory measures to limit water use in <br />crop production. <br />The purpose of the 8-9 dryland farming assessment has been to <br />provide the kind of "in-depth evaluation" not expected in the scope <br />of State research usir.g economic models, The selected approach of <br />the General Contractor team to these "in-depth evaluations" is the <br />case study method. Choosing two representative geographic areas <br />overlying the Ogallala Formation, it was the original intent to <br />conduct comparative analyses of economic and social impacts in <br />areas with and without irrigation water, as well as before and <br />after the decline in irrigation water availability. Neither the <br />"with-and-without" nor the "before-and-after" approach was found <br />workable in practice. In the first instance. areas of sufficient <br />size for impact analysis (say groups of counties) could not be <br />found where impacts solely attributable to irrigation water or the <br />lack of it could be isolated from many other determinants of eco- <br />nomic and social change. In the second instance, areas of suffi- <br />cient size for impact analysis could not be found where impacts of <br />a significant adjustment over several years had been experienced <br />due to a decline in irrigation water following several years of <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />- <br /> <br />development occasioned by its availability. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />1-4 <br /> <br />I <br /> <br /> <br />Arthur 0 Liltle.lnc I <br />