Adoption of Pressure Irrigation Systems and Scientific Irrigation Scheduling Practices by U.S. Farmers: An Application of Multilevel Models

Water scarcity is becoming more acute, necessitating better understanding of farmer adoption of improved irrigation technologies. Using data from the national 2013 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey, this study employs a multilevel modeling approach to analyze irrigation decisions. The variation in pressure irrigation adoption is mainly accounted for by state-level factors, while adoption of scientific scheduling practices is more associated with farm-level factors. Adoption increases with larger acreage, groundwater use, information sources other than neighbors, and recent higher temperatures. Adoption is negatively associated with on-farm surface water and barriers related to increased costs, management time, and time horizon.