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Comparing 20th Century Trends in U.S. and Global Agricultural Water and Land Use

Comparing 20th Century Trends in U.S. and Global Agricultural Water and Land Use Abstract Globally and in the United States, agriculture is the major user not only of water but also of land. This paper compares trends in aggregate and per capita water and land use by the agricultural sector in the United States and the world during the 20th century. It finds that although cropland use per capita has been declining in both areas since the early 1900s, agricultural water use per capita only began declining in the latter half of that century. That the increases in efficiencies of agricultural water use lagged behind the increases in the efficiency of cropland use is consistent with the fact that farmers (and farming communities) have traditionally had stronger property rights to their land than to their water. As a result, through much of the 20th century, farmers had a greater incentive to improve the efficiency of land use than that of water use and to substitute water for land (or irrigated land for dryland) in producing crops. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Water International Taylor & Francis

Comparing 20th Century Trends in U.S. and Global Agricultural Water and Land Use

Goklany, Indur M.
Water International , Volume 27 (3): 9 – Sep 1, 2002
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References (41)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1941-1707
eISSN
0250-8060
DOI
10.1080/02508060208687012
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract Globally and in the United States, agriculture is the major user not only of water but also of land. This paper compares trends in aggregate and per capita water and land use by the agricultural sector in the United States and the world during the 20th century. It finds that although cropland use per capita has been declining in both areas since the early 1900s, agricultural water use per capita only began declining in the latter half of that century. That the increases in efficiencies of agricultural water use lagged behind the increases in the efficiency of cropland use is consistent with the fact that farmers (and farming communities) have traditionally had stronger property rights to their land than to their water. As a result, through much of the 20th century, farmers had a greater incentive to improve the efficiency of land use than that of water use and to substitute water for land (or irrigated land for dryland) in producing crops.

Journal

Water International – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 1, 2002

Keywords: Water use; agriculture; cropland; trends; land use; property rights; environmental transition

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