Agriculture is a major user of ground and surface water in the United States, accounting for 80 percent of the Nation's consumptive water use and over 90 percent in many Western States. This ERS research program investigates water allocation, water conservation, and water management issues facing irrigated agriculture. The focus is on irrigated agriculture, but other sectors are examined for their competitive influence on water supplies and impacts of water reallocations among agricultural, environmental, and urban users. It includes consideration of the role of water markets, producer decisions, institutional adjustments (including Federal water infrastructure), and water-related policies with respect to resource costs, water quality, profitability, and environmental effects, as well as analysis of the adoption of water conserving technologies.

Irrigated agriculture remains the dominant use of fresh water in the in the United States, although irrigation's share of total consumptive use has declined since 1970. National irrigated cropland area has expanded by about 30 percent since 1969, while field water application rates per acre have declined by about 15 percent, resulting in an increase in total irrigation water applications of about 12 percent from 1969 to 1998.

Nationally, variable irrigation water costs for ground water are less ($32 per acre) than the cost of off-farm surface water ($41 per acre). This relationship has reversed over time; surface water was $6 per acre less than ground water in 1984. However, neither reflects the full economic costs of water; onfarm well and equipment costs can be substantial for groundwater access, while infrastructure costs are often subsidized for publicly developed, off-farm surface water.

This research program examines fundamental water allocation, water conservation, and water management issues facing agriculture. The focus is on irrigated agriculture, the Nation's largest water user, but other sectors are examined for their competititive influence on water supplies. Policies, institutional adjustments, and producer decisions affecting water conservation within irrigated agriculture and water reallocations between agricultural, environmental, and urban users are analyzed with respect to water quantity, water quality, environmental effects, and agricultural profitability.

Near-term program plans include examining (1) the influence of economic, environmental, and institutional factors affecting adoption of water- and chemical-conserving management practices and irrigation technologies; (2) the economics of alternative public policy mechanisms to encourage agricultural water conservation and improved water quality; and (3) the availability of water infrastructure and policy mechanisms to facilitate water reallocations and the implications for irrigated agriculture and resource costs.

for more information, contact: Noel Gollehon
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page updated: April 3, 2001