US irrigation 2018–2023: fewer farms, fewer acres, slightly less water
Every five years the US Department of Agriculture surveys how American farms irrigate. The 2023 edition, published by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) on 31 October 2024, shows a sector that is shrinking slightly, still relies heavily on groundwater, and still schedules water mostly by eye.
The headline numbers
| 2018 | 2023 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farms irrigating | 231,474 | 212,714 | −18,760 (−8%) |
| Irrigated acres | 55.9 million | 53.1 million | −2.8 million (−5%) |
| Water applied | 83.4 million acre-feet | 81.0 million acre-feet | −2.4 million (about −3%) |
The average application rate stayed at about 1.5 acre-feet per acre, roughly 460 mm of water per season. Five states (Arkansas, California, Idaho, Nebraska and Texas) account for about half of irrigated acres and more than half of the water applied.
Groundwater and energy
- Groundwater from on-farm wells supplied 54% of the water applied to irrigated open land; surface water supplied the rest.
- Irrigation wells averaged 241 feet (about 73 m) deep.
- Farmers spent $3.3 billion on energy to pump water in 2023, and invested $3 billion in irrigation equipment, facilities and land improvements.
- Sprinklers covered 12.6 million more acres than gravity systems.
How farmers decide when to irrigate
The survey also asks which methods farms use to time irrigation (a farm can report several). National tables are published by NASS; Penn State Extension's summary for Pennsylvania gives a clear picture of a humid state where irrigation is supplementary:
| Method (Pennsylvania, 2,362 farms reporting) | Farms | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Visual condition of the crop | 2,095 | 89% |
| Feel of the soil | 1,341 | 57% |
| Soil moisture sensing devices | 130 | 5.5% |
| Started when neighbours did | 41 | 1.7% |
| Daily crop evapotranspiration reports | 30 | 1.3% |
Shares are our calculation from the farm counts. The pattern is familiar: measured approaches (sensors, evapotranspiration) remain a small minority, even though the data they rely on are cheaper than ever. Closing that gap between available measurement and everyday decisions was the purpose of decision-support platforms like FIGARO (see the sensors behind the platform).
Sources
- USDA NASS, 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey (released 31 October 2024).
- Hortidaily (12 November 2024), “USDA releases 2023 irrigation and water management data”.
- L. Reynolds (29 January 2025), “Farming by numbers”, Irrigation Today.
- M. Cordero (4 December 2024), “Irrigation, water use on US farms are in decline”, Investigate Midwest.
- C. Canfield, Penn State Extension, “2023 Agriculture Irrigation and Water Management Survey”.