Impact of Drought on Adoption of Irrigation Technologies and Crop Mix in California

Drought-driven water scarcity challenges in agricultural sector are projected to intensify with climate change. This paper examines the extent to which drought influenced California farmers’ adoption of alternative irrigation technologies and their crop mix decisions. Using county-level data from California (2000Ð2020), we find that extreme and exceptional drought relative to no drought or abnormally dry conditions significantly increase the likelihood of adopting more efficient irrigation technologies across all crop categories. We also find that moderate and severe droughts are associated with a reduction in harvested forage crop acreage, with no statistically significant effects observed for other crop categories.