Drip irrigation has been widely touted as a potential mean to promote ecological sustainability in arid crop production. However, the long-term viability of this practice also depends on its economic sustainability. Despite the potential increase in water use efficiency and yield, the system also needs to generate higher income to be popular among farmers. In view of this, we examine how the use of drip irrigation instead of traditional flood irrigation affects both the yield and gross margin of cotton production in arid northwestern China. Results from propensity score matching of production data from 228 cotton producers show that even though the use of drip irrigation increases farmers' yield, its impact on gross margin is statistically insignificant. We furthermore find through regression analysis that the effect of drip irrigation on gross margin is significantly positive only for the farmers with less water availability constraint, as measured by their water use. With water scarcity in the region expected to increase in the future, the adoption of drip irrigation is likely to become less profitable and hence less viable from farmers' perspective. Therefore, we conclude that especially in regions with water shortage, the promotion of drip irrigation technology inevitably needs to be supported by the simultaneous improvement of water infrastructure to ensure water access at all times. Only then the full potential of drip irrigation to support ecological sustainability of arid crop production can be tapped.

滴灌被广泛宣传为促进干旱作物生产中生态可持续性的潜在手段。但是，这种做法的长期可行性还取决于其经济可持续性。尽管用水效率和产量有潜在增加的趋势，但该系统还需要产生更高的收入，才能在农民中普及。有鉴于此，我们研究了使用滴灌代替传统的洪水灌溉如何影响西北干旱地区的棉花产量和毛利率。来自228家棉花生产商的生产数据的倾向得分匹配结果表明，即使使用滴灌技术提高了农民的产量，其对毛利率的影响在统计学上也微不足道。通过回归分析，我们进一步发现，滴灌对毛利率的影响仅对用水量较少的农民显着正影响（按其用水量衡量）。鉴于该地区未来的水资源短缺状况将越来越严重，采用滴灌技术的利润可能会下降，因此从农民的角度来看，可行性较低。因此，我们得出结论，尤其是在缺水地区，滴灌技术的推广不可避免地需要同时改善水基础设施以确保始终获得水。只有这样，才能挖掘滴灌的全部潜力来支持干旱作物生产的生态可持续性。