USDA Survey of Irrigation Organizations - Steven Wallander

1. USDA Survey of Irrigation Organizations
Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts
January 31, 2020, Austin, Texas
Steven Wallander, Marcel Aillery, and Aaron Hrozencik
USDA Economic Research Service
The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the authors and should not
be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. government determination or policy.
This research was supported by the intramural research program of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
1

2. • Census of Irrigation Organizations
– Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1910-1978
• Interagency water forums: Call for data
– National Water Census
– National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP)
• NDRP Action Plan - ‘..expand data collection to enable
better understanding of agricultural-producer and
irrigation-district responses to drought.’
• Congressional budget initiative to study drought
resilience:
– 2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations
History and Motivation
2

3. • 1978 Census of Irrigation Organizations
– All organizations moving off-farm surface water
– Focused primarily on infrastructure and water budgets
• 2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations
– Organizations that directly interact with irrigators
– Includes groundwater districts
– Less focus on farm-level data within service area
– Additional topics (e.g., conservation, water transfers)
2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations
3

4. 4
• Economic Research Service (ERS)
– Questionnaire development
– Research planning
– Stakeholder engagement
• National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
– Pre-testing of questionnaire
– OMB clearance
– Implementation and data collection
• Office of the Chief Economist (OCE)
– List frame and geodatabase development
USDA Lead Agencies

5. 5
The Survey of Irrigation Organizations complies with
NASS confidentiality standards for non-disclosure.
• Survey response data are limited to statistical use by
approved researchers.
• Summary tables from the survey will be reported at a
spatial scale (e.g., state or regional level) that
aggregates individual responses to ensure
confidentiality of the underlying data.
NASS Statistical Survey

6. 6
Census of Irrigation Organizations:
Number of Entities – 1940 to 1978
Type 1940 1950 1959 1969 1978
Unincorporated Mutual 1,676 6,464 4,989 4,266 3,691
Incorporated Mutual 2,678 2,884 2,737 2,586 2,441
Irrigation District 441 483 558 720 832
USBR-Operated 97 37 54 57 86
USBR User-Operated -- 79 147 259 307
US BIA-Operated 168 141 123 56 139
Commercial 273 401 246 208 79
State and Local Government 205 81 42 34 74
Other 25 - - - 17

7. 7
• Irrigation districts and ditch companies
that deliver off-farm water supplies directly to
farms and ranches
• Groundwater districts that influence well
development, metering, or pumping decisions
Irrigation Organization Focus
2019 Survey

8. 8
Major Irrigation Regions
Source: ERS analysis of NASS Census of Agriculture Data 1997 to 2012
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9. 9
• Regional water budget estimates
• USDA conservation program analysis
• Research needs:
– Drought response and resilience measures
– Cost function estimation for water delivery
– Farm-level behavioral analysis (with FRIS/IWMS)
• Knowledge transfer among organizations
Purposes of the
Survey of Irrigation Organizations

10. 10
New Topic: Drought Resilience
• The 2019 survey will collect information on
drought response and planning
– Ranges of expected water delivery variability.
– Use of drought response strategies such as land
fallowing and water-source substitution.
– Use of drought resilience strategies such as
managed aquifer recharge and conservation
investments.

11. 11
Drought is Typically the Largest Cause of Loss
in Crop Insurance and Disaster Assistance
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
PercentofCropCashReciepts
Drought Indemnity (%) Drought Ad-Hoc (%) Other Indemnity (%) Other Ad-Hoc (%)
Source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/farmers-
employ-strategies-to-reduce-risk-of-drought-damages/
11

12. 12
New Topic: Groundwater
• The 2019 survey will collect information from
groundwater districts and other organizations
– Extent of oversight for well development and
pumping
– Use of monitoring and modeling to manage
groundwater use
– Conjunctive management of surface water and
groundwater (eg. managed aquifer recharge)

13. 13
Other Topics
• Organizational structure and governance
• Farms and acreage served
• Water storage and conveyance infrastructure
• Water source, allocations, and transfers
• Water-supply projections and flow measurement
• Conservation initiatives
• Costs and revenue

14. 14
Project Timeline
• Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
– Develop draft survey questionnaire and list frame
• Spring – Fall 2019
– Survey pretesting, finalize questionnaire and list frame
• Summer – Fall 2019
– OMB clearance
• Fall 2019 – Winter 2020
– Finalize multi-modal survey design, confirm contacts, survey outreach
• Early 2020 (Feb-April)
– Conduct survey for 2019 production year
• Late 2020
– Process and release dataset, prepare Summary Report

15. 15
Multi-Modal Survey
Survey mailed to all organizations
Survey completed:
• online at www.agcounts.usda.gov
• by mail or fax
NASS enumerated survey for a share of organizations:
• by phone or personal interview
NASS assistance available on request

16. 16
Stakeholder Input
• Feedback on questionnaire development
– Are key topics covered in the current survey proposal?
– Are questions clear to respondents (survey pre-testing)?
• Identifying organizations for the list frame
– Have we identified the relevant organizations by State?
– Do we have updated contact information?
• Assistance in obtaining high response rates
– How best to inform irrigation organizations of the survey
and encourage their participation?

17. 17
• Steven Wallander, USDA ERS
– steve.wallander@usda.gov 202-694-5546
• Marcel Aillery, USDA ERS
– marcel.aillery@usda.gov 202-694-5511
• Aaron Hrozencik, USDA ERS
– aaron.hrozencik@usda.gov 816-926-1444
• Kathy Ott, USDA NASS
– kathy.ott@usda.gov 202-720-1114
Questions?