Factors Affecting the Choice, Intensity, and Allocation of Irrigation Technologies by U.S. Cotton Farmers

• Published in: Water (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 706
• Main Authors: Pokhrel, Bijay, Paudel, Krishna, Segarra, Eduardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2018
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Cotton; Cotton industry; Cover crops; Crop yield; Crop yields; Education; Farmers; Information sources; intensity; Irrigation; irrigation area allocation; Irrigation efficiency; irrigation technology; Irrigation water; Land use; multivariate fractional regression; Natural resources; Oklahoma; Precision farming; Surveys; Trickle irrigation; Water; water-efficient irrigation technologies; Oklahoma; United States > US
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w10060706

We use the 2013 cotton precision farming survey data to study the adoption of irrigation technologies by cotton farmers in 14 states of the United States. We find that farmers with a higher irrigated yield, and who are from the Southern Plains (Texas and Oklahoma), adopt water-efficient irrigation technologies, such as sub-surface drip and trickle irrigation technologies. There are 10 irrigation technologies that farmers can adopt for cotton production in these 14 cotton-growing states. The intensity of the irrigation technologies, as measured by the number of irrigation technologies adopted in cotton production, is affected by the irrigated cotton yield realized, land holding (total land owned), education, computer use, and the origin of the cotton farmer being from the Southern Plains. We use a multivariate fractional regression model to identify land allocation by the different irrigation technologies used. Our results indicate that significant variables affecting land allocation with different irrigation technologies are the age of the operator, the cover crop, the information sources used, the per acre irrigated yield, the education, and the cotton farmer being from the Southern Plains.