New county-level data shows U.S. irrigated farmland grew by more than 3 million acres between 1997 and 2022—but the national number hides a much more interesting story playing out county by county.
The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) at the University of Nebraska has released an updated infographic, Agricultural Water Use Trends in the U.S., 1997–2022, extending its earlier analysis of irrigation trends with five additional years of data. The update draws on USDA/NASS's 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey alongside the 1998 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey, giving researchers, producers and policymakers a longer, sharper lens on how irrigated agriculture has moved across the country.
A net gain of over 3 million irrigated acres nationwide is only part of the picture. A county-level view shows a patchwork of decreasing and increasing irrigated farmland, shaped less by a single national trend than by local water availability, policy and economics.
Where irrigation is retreating
In several regions, there is a tightening supply and mounting pressure on water resources:
- California has seen irrigated acreage decline as long-term drought and water transfers to cities reduce agricultural supply. The state's 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is expected to drive further reductions in the years ahead.
- Along Colorado's Front Range, population growth has pulled water away from farmland and toward municipal use.
Source : nebraska.edu