California Irrigation Methods Survey Across Five Cycles

California growers report irrigation methods and crop acreages in surveys conducted approximately every 5-10 years. The 1991, 2001, 2010, 2016, and 2021 surveys sampled from a list of about 58,000 growers, excluding rice-only, non-irrigation, and livestock-only operations. Data includes reported crop categories, irrigation methods, and the main county of farming.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in irrigation method adoption across the 20 crop categories over the five survey cycles.
• Model the relationship between reported main county and the distribution of irrigation systems used.
• Estimate water use by combining reported acreages for each crop category with irrigation method data.

Strengths

• Time-series data spanning five survey cycles from 1991 to 2021, enabling longitudinal analysis.
• Sampling frame of about 58,000 California growers provides a substantial population base.
• Excludes non-relevant growers (rice-only, livestock-only) to focus on irrigated crop production.

Limitations

• Exact row count and column structure are unknown, complicating initial assessment of dataset scale and variables.
• Approximate 5-10 year survey frequency creates gaps in continuous annual trend tracking.
• Relies on self-reported data from growers, which may introduce reporting bias or inaccuracies.

Provenance

Source

State of California, via surveys distributed to growers.

Collection Method

Questionnaire forms distributed by mail and online to a random sample of growers from a California Department of Food and Agriculture list.

Time Range

1991, 2001, 2010, 2016, 2021

Freshness

Most recent survey conducted in 2021; next update likely around 2026-2031 based on historical cadence.

Geography

State of California, United States, with county-level identification.