Acres – Irrigated Land

Massachusetts had a 21.82% decrease in the number of farms that use irrigation from '97 to '02, however, the use of irrigation has increased a total of 79.75% from '74 to '02, which shows that irrigation is becoming a more important activity on farms. The total number of acres that was irrigated dropped between '97 and '02 by 11.56%. Once again though, if you look at the past years besides '97, you would see that the number of acres being irrigated has increased. The change from '74 to '02 was a 28.13% increase.

From Figure 5.3, you can see that Plymouth County uses the most irrigation by far, compared to all the other counties, even though the amount of irrigated acres decreased by 9.5% from '97 to '02. The reason that Plymouth has uses the most irrigation is becasue of the many cranberry bogs that account for much of that counties agricultural sales. The largest losses in irrigated acres can be seen in Essex County, which saw a 54.01% decrease from '97 to '02. Hampden County's irrigated land decreased by 24.02%, which is a second largest decrease that was seen. Large decreases can also be seen in Worcester, Middlesex, Norfolk Counties, whose irrigated land dropped by 16.03%, 17.46%, and 15.98% respectively. The largest increases in irrigated land can be seen in Berkshire (27.41%), Franklin (14.8%), and Dukes (4.35%).

Irrigation on harvested cropland and pasture and other land took a drop from '97 to '02 by 11.17% and 40.56% respectively. If you look back a few years to '87 and compare it to '02, you can see that there was a 20.15% increase in the irrigation used on cropland, which shows that this number has been rising on the whole. The reason for the decline from '97 to '02 may be attributed to the large loss of farms during that same time period. Irrigatation on pastureland and other land has been decreasing greatly over the past decade. From '87 to '02, there has been a 64.36% decrease in the number of acres that are being irrigated for pastureland and other land.