U.S. irrigated agriculture has declined in the West and increased in areas east

Nationally, 54.9 million acres in the U.S. were irrigated in 2022, down slightly from 56.3 million acres in 1997. This overall decline conceals significant regional changes in recent decades. Between 1997 and 2022, total irrigated agricultural land in California decreased from 8.8 to 8.2 million acres, while irrigated land in Nebraska increased from 7 to 8 million acres. Over this same time period, irrigated cropland acreage in Arkansas increased by more than 1 million acres while Texas saw a decline of nearly 2 million acres. In 2012, Arkansas replaced Texas as the State with the third-most irrigated acres, behind Nebraska and California. The decrease in irrigated area in the West—where a generally arid climate has required irrigation for most crops—primarily reflects surface and groundwater shortages due to drought and groundwater depletion in the face of competing demands for water. In some areas, urbanization has also contributed to this shift. The increase in irrigation in historically rain-fed eastern agricultural regions largely reflects the benefits of irrigation in areas with unreliable rainfall. This chart appears in the USDA, Economic Research Service topic page Irrigation & Water Use.