Environmental News Network - Study Finds More U.S. Crops to Require Irrigation

Details: By Dartmouth College; 17.Aug

With climate change, irrigating more crops in the United States will be critical to sustaining future yields, as drought conditions are likely to increase due to warmer temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns.

Julie Swatson

With climate change, irrigating more crops in the United States will be critical to sustaining future yields, as drought conditions are likely to increase due to warmer temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns. Yet less than 20% of the nation’s croplands are equipped for irrigation.

A Dartmouth-led study finds that by the middle of the 21st century, under a moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the benefits of expanded irrigation will outweigh the costs of installation and operation over an expanded portion of current U.S. croplands.

The results show that by midcentury corn and soybeans that are currently rainfed would benefit from irrigation in most of North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, western Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Soybean farmland that relies on rain throughout parts of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, and Oklahoma would also benefit from irrigation. The findings are published in Communications Earth & Environment, an open-access journal from Nature Portfolio.

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Study Finds More U.S. Crops to Require Irrigation