A new study by researchers at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska offers a comprehensive national-scale assessment of irrigated agriculture in the United States in recent years. Published in Agricultural Water Management, the findings carry important implications for the future of food production, water policy, and rural livelihoods across the country.
The study, "Irrigated agriculture in the United States: Current status and future frontiers," draws on multiple datasets supported by robust geospatial analysis to paint a detailed picture of where irrigated agriculture stands today, where it is headed, and what must change if the U.S. is to sustain its role as a global food security anchor. The study is a collaboration by Daugherty Water for Food scientists Ivo Zution Gonçalves, Christopher Neale, Thais Murias Jardim, Regiane de Carvalho Bispo, Randall Ritzema, and Renata Rimšaite.
The paper is published in the journal Agricultural Water Management.
Irrigated agriculture in the U.S. remains geographically concentrated. Five states—California, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, and Idaho—account for approximately half of all irrigated farmland nationally. The study notes that water management decisions in these states carry outsized consequences for domestic food production.
The researchers identify a gradual eastward shift in irrigated agricultural activity. As groundwater depletion, particularly in the High Plains Aquifer, constrains production in parts of the Great Plains and West, some agricultural expansion is occurring in eastern states where surface water and rainfall are more abundant. The authors note this shift has implications for water infrastructure, land use, and agricultural policy in regions not historically associated with large-scale irrigation.
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