Some 55.3 million acres of U.S. farmland are irrigated, says the Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey, drawn from USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture. Nebraska has the largest amount of irrigation land, 8.298 million acres, and California is second with 7.549 million acres, followed by Arkansas with 4.950 million acres, Texas with 4.492 million acres and Idaho with 3.512 million acres.
California, with its year-round temperate climate and dominance in fruit and vegetable production, is the largest user of irrigation water, 23.5 million acre-feet, according to the report. Nebraska, known for irrigation booms that march in circles around a well, is second with 8.1 million acre-feet. An acre foot is the volume of water needed to cover an acre of land with a foot of water, or nearly 326,000 gallons.
Four states in the central and southern Plains, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, account for 29 percent of irrigated acreage and 22 percent of usage. California used 27 percent of the U.S. total of 88.5 million acre-feet reported in the 2012 Census.