Yield quality and irrigation with saline water under environmental limitations: the case of processing tomatoes in California

Irrigation with saline water has a positive impact on some quality indices of processing tomatoes, but with concomitant reductions in output quantity. This article studies the impact of the trade-off between these two factors on optimal water management under waterlogging and costly drainage-disposal conditions. The focus is on the content of total soluble solids as a quality measure affecting prices paid by California processors to tomato growers. A function relating quality to water and salinity applications and a quality hedonic-price function are estimated and introduced into a static, field-level mathematical programming model. The model calculates optimal water management under environmental regulations associated with drainage disposal in California.