Colorado Water April 2006

• Year: 2006
• Title: Colorado Water
• Author: Water Center of Colorado State University
• Description: April 2006 Issue
• Publications - Doc Type: Newsletter

Economist Explores Risk Management in Crop Production
and Economic Impacts of Changes in Irrigatigated Cropping in
James Pritchett
Tames Pritchett
joined the Depart-
ment of Agricultural
and Resource Eco-
nomics at Colorado
State University in
May of 2001. Pritch-
ett served as an
Assistant Profes-
sor in Agricultural
Economics at Purdue
University in from
1999 to 2001 where
primary research, ex-
tension, and teaching
efforts were in grain production economics, and
grain product marketing, with a particular empha-
sis in specialty grains and oilseeds. He received a
doctorate in Agriculture and Applied Economics
from the University of Minnesota in 1999.
Pritchett currently advises one of the CWRRI
fellows, Jennifer Thorvaldson. They are working
on the project "Colorado's Evolving Irrigated
Agriculture: Economic Accounting and Impact
Analysis." Water is a natural resource of limited
supply and many competing uses — and irrigated
agriculture is only one of the uses. Pritchett
and Thorvaldson are working to model specific
cropping scenarios that might occur if water is not
available for irrigation. The economic impacts of
converting from irrigated agriculture to dryland
cropping systems and fallowing programs are just
a few of the possibilities they are exploring.
Dr. Pritchett's primary research and extension
efforts are focused on risk management in crop
production with specific interest in managing
limited irrigation water supplies, the economic
contribution of irrigated agriculture to local
regions, and the use of real options analysis in
everyday agribusiness investment decisions. Ex-
amples of Pritchett's work include unpublished
studies concerning the economic impacts of
complying with the Republican River Com-
pact, the economic contribution of wells under
the Groundwater Appropriators of the South
Platte (GASP) and published studies regarding
the risk management effectiveness of various
marketing strategies and crop insurance prod-
ucts, a vegetable processing case study and the
economic impacts of invasive animal disease.
Dr. Pritchett also teaches EA 428 Agribusiness
Management, EA 310 Agricultural Marketing,
EA 308 Agricultural Finance, EA 305 Enter-
prise Analysis as well as ACC 192 Introduction
to Agricultural Systems and EA 510 Agricul-
tural Product Marketing at Colorado State
University
Originally from southeast Colorado, Dr. Pritch-
ett attended Colorado State University and
obtained a B.S. in Agricultural Business and an
M.S in Agricultural Economics from the De-
partment of Agricultural and Resource Eco-
nomics.
Phone: [phone]
E -Mail: James.Pritchett @ColoState.edu
Web: http: // dare .agsei.colostate.edu /pritchet/
A Hundred Years of Change
Arkansas River Basin Water Forum
April 20 -21, 2006
Chaffee County Fairgrounds
Poncha Springs, CO
For More Information:
Phone: [phone]
Email: info @gama.org