News

More farms are irrigating

US farms irrigated nearly 56 million acres in 2018, according to the USDA’s Irrigation and Water Management survey.

John Farner, government and public affairs director with the Irrigation Association, says the data gives insight into when some farmers irrigate.

“The number one reason is they look at the crops and think that the crops need to be irrigated,” he says. “Or it could be their neighbor is irrigated so they are going to irrigate because their neighbor is irrigating.”

Farner says the Irrigation Association is using the data to educate growers.  

“So we’re going to look at what are the hurdles that we need to overcome with making sure farmers are using technology to their advantage with making sure that we’re providing the correct amount of water to crops that they need and no more or no less,” he says.

He says this becomes even more important as farmers are faced with producing more food with less resources.

“With all that pressure going on – pressure over water, fights over water, we need to give the tools to farmers to make sure they’re successful in what they’re setting out to do,” he says.

Other results from the Irrigation and Water Management survey are:

• More than 231,000 farms irrigated at some point in 2018. That’s an increase of 2,000 farms since 2013.
• The largest portion of irrigated farmland acres was dedicated to cropland-including grain and oil seed crops, vegetables, nursery and greenhouse, and hay crop.
• Groundwater from on-farm wells accounted for 50 percent of irrigation water applied to acres.
• Farmers and ranchers spent more than $2 billion on irrigation equipment, facilities, and technology.