Effects of climate, land, and farm characteristics on irrigation adoption, water use, and conservation practices in the Southeastern US

Harikrishnan Santhosh and Jeffrey D. Mullen

Chapter 13 in Handbook on Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation, and Adaptation in Agriculture, 2026, pp 280-303 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the factors that influence irrigation management decisions among row crop farmers in the Southeastern United States. We use repeated cross-sectional farm-level data to model the effects of climate, water scarcity, and farm characteristics on irrigated acreage, technology adoption, water application rate, and the adoption of water conservation practices (WCPs). Findings reveal that, unlike the Western US, groundwater remains the dominant irrigation source, with much lesser reliance on surface water. Drought-prone areas show higher irrigated shares and application rates, as well as a higher likelihood of adopting sprinklers. Technical or financial assistance from federal and state agencies, as well as increasing the number of reported irrigation information sources, significantly drives the adoption of WCPs. This research underscores the need for region-specific strategies to address water scarcity and climate variability in agriculture.

Keywords: Irrigation Management; Water Scarcity; Climate Impact; Water Conservation Practices; Technology Adoption; Drought (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035344963
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035344970.00023 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23858_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().