Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains

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dc.contributor.authorAo, Yufei Z.en
dc.contributor.authorHendricks, Nathan P.en
dc.contributor.authorMarston, Landon T.en
dc.coverage.countryUnited Statesen
dc.coverage.stateKansasen
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-06T12:17:42Zen
dc.date.available2022-04-06T12:17:42Zen
dc.date.issued2021-08en
dc.description.abstractThe average farm size has more than doubled within the United States over the last three decades, transforming the agricultural industry and rural farming communities. It is unclear, however, how this ubiquitous trend has affected and is affected by the environment, particularly groundwater resources critical for food production. Here, we leverage a unique multi-decadal dataset of well-level groundwater withdrawals for crop irrigation over the Kansas High Plains Aquifer to determine the interactions between groundwater depletion and growing farms. Holding key technological, management, and environmental variables fixed, we show that doubling a farm's irrigated cropland decreases groundwater extractions by 2%-5% depending on the initial farm size. However, a corresponding shift by larger farms to different irrigation technologies offsets this reduction in groundwater use, leading to a slight increase in overall groundwater use. We find groundwater depletion increases the likelihood farmland is sold to a larger farm, amplifying the cycle of groundwater depletion and the consolidation of farmland.en
dc.description.notesL T M acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation (INFEWS Grant ACI-1639529), the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (Grant FF-NIA19-0000000084), and a Kansas State University Faculty Development Award. Y Z A acknowledges partial support from the Kansas State University Global Food Systems Initiative and National Science Foundation (NRT Grant 1828571). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of our supporters. We acknowledge helpful discussions with B Wilson and W Koehn.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation (INFEWS)National Science Foundation (NSF) [ACI-1639529]; Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research [FF-NIA19-0000000084]; Kansas State University Faculty Development Award; Kansas State University Global Food Systems Initiative; National Science Foundation (NRT)National Science Foundation (NSF) [1828571]en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1816en
dc.identifier.issn1748-9326en
dc.identifier.issue8en
dc.identifier.other84065en
dc.identifier.volume16en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectfarm sizeen
dc.subjectfarm structureen
dc.subjectrebound effecten
dc.subjectgroundwateren
dc.subjectaquiferen
dc.subjectirrigation efficiencyen
dc.subjectHigh Plainsen
dc.titleGrowing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plainsen
dc.title.serialEnvironmental Research Lettersen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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