Introduction: Considering that a very large part of water resources is consumed as the most important and limited production inputs in Iran’s agricultural sector as well as lack of water on the one hand and the huge costs of its supply on the other hand, increasing the efficiency and value of water consumption is one of the most important national goals. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating the water of Saman County, located in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province of Iran, in order to provide the conditions to reduce the consumption or waste of water resources by adopting favorable policies in the agricultural sector. According to the goals and limitations of this research, the production function method was estimated using econometric techniques.
Materials and Methods: In this research, in order to identify the effective inputs in the production of almonds in Saman County, and to determine the economic value of Zayandehroud River water through the Cochran-Orcutt formula, 85 questionnaires were completed by a simple random method from gardeners of the county. Then, Cobb-Douglas, Transcendental, Quadratic, Generalized Quadratic and Generalized Leontief functions were estimated with in an econometric method; and according to the available indicators and statistics, the quadratic function was chosen as the most appropriate production function while by using the estimated coefficients of the selected estimation model and the price of the product, the final value of water production could be calculated.
Results and Discussion: According to the estimation of the dependent forms of the production function and their comparison through F test, coefficient of determination statistic, DW test, the number of significant coefficients, the economic value obtained and the agreement of the model with the theory, the quadratic production function was selected as the superior model. According to the coefficients of the second-order model in the county, water, animal and chemical fertilizers, pesticides, tree age, frost and type of irrigation were significant while labor force and machinery were not significant in almond production. The economic value of water was equal to 70640 IRI rials.
Conclusion and Suggestions: Considering that the economic value of water for the almond crop was estimated at 70640 IRI rials for each cubic meter which is more than the willingness to pay and the cost paid by gardeners, and also because some gardeners did not have a modern irrigation system, it can be managed to compensate for some part of the price increase as well as the government may plan to modernize the irrigation system at the same time as increasing the price of water consumption up to the level of willingness of the gardeners to pay, while preventing double pressure on the gardeners, satisfying them and increasing their participation, leading to optimal use of water and provide water input.