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.
- In parts of the High Plains, groundwater depletion has left less water available to meet crop needs, resulting in a pullback in irrigated acres.
- In Florida, farmland converted for residential and industrial development, including solar power, has reduced the state’s irrigated land.
Where irrigation is expanding
Elsewhere, farmers are adding irrigation, often as a hedge against a more unpredictable climate:
- Nebraska, which sits atop relatively abundant groundwater, saw irrigated acreage climb early in the study period amid drought and high crop prices. More recently, local policy has begun to restrict further expansion across much of the state.
- Across the Midwest and Eastern U.S., areas that have historically relied on rainfed crops are adding irrigation, a direct response to increasingly variable rainfall.
- In the Mississippi River Valley, despite high annual precipitation, irrigation has expanded to support rice and other water-intensive crops, since most of the region's rain falls outside the core growing season.
Why it matters
This comprehensive, long-term dataset is crucial for evidence-based decision-making, helping stakeholders understand local shifts in agricultural resilience, water policy impacts and the effectiveness of conservation strategies over time.
Taken together, these trends underscore a central theme in the DWFI's water and food security work: irrigation decisions are rarely driven by a single factor. Weather variability, groundwater availability, state and local policy and shifting crop economics all interact, sometimes resulting in a decrease in irrigated farmland and sometimes an increase.
By extending the dataset through 2022, the updated infographic gives a fuller view of these dynamics as they've unfolded over a full generation of American agriculture, offering a foundation for continued research into how the nation's farmers are adapting to a changing water landscape.
The infographic was produced with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of the Chief Economist. Its findings are those of the authors and do not represent official USDA or U.S. government policy.
Citation: Williss, R., Carrillo, R., Rimšaitė, R., Melkani, A., Brozović, N., 2026. “Agricultural Water Use Trends in the U.S., 1997–2022.,” Infographic. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, https://go.unl.edu/irrigation-trends.
