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Canada encompasses vastly different hydrological conditions, agricultural practices, and legal regimes for water rights. In Alberta, extensive agricultural irrigation has developed since the late 1800s in water-supply constrained conditions based on a prior-appropriation regime for water rights. In comparison, the legal framework for agricultural water rights in the relatively water-abundant province of Quebec has more recently evolved into regulated riparianism where most of the crops are still rain-fed. This chapter compares these two provinces to highlight how sub-national jurisdictions on water rights and differences in legal traditions can address diversity in agricultural practice and hydrological regimes.

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