Skip to main content
Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Charts of Note logo

Improving water-use efficiency remains a challenge for U.S. irrigated agriculture

  • by Glenn Schaible
  • 5/6/2013
  • Farm Practices & Management
  • Irrigation & Water Use
  • Natural Resources & Environment
  • Conservation Programs
A bar chart showing the share, by system type, of irrigated acres in the 17 western States from 1994 to 2008

Download chart image

U.S. agriculture accounts for 80-90 percent of the Nation’s consumptive water use (water lost to the environment by evaporation, crop transpiration, or incorporation into products). The 17 Western States account for nearly three-quarters of U.S. irrigated agriculture. While substantial technological innovation has already occurred in irrigation systems, significant room for improvement in farm irrigation efficiency still exists. Between 1994 and 2008, the combined share of Western irrigated acres using improved gravity-flow and low-pressure sprinkler systems has increased but the rate at which traditional irrigation systems have been replaced with more efficient, improved systems has slowed over the past decade. This chart comes from the Amber Waves September 2012 finding, Improving Water-Use Efficiency Remains a Challenge for U.S. Irrigated Agriculture.

Get Charts of Note delivered!

Subscribe

See our Privacy Policy.