Irrigation within Arkansas primarily occurs on cultivated cropland acres. The 2007 report shows that within cultivated cropland, irrigation increased while conversely nonirrigated cultivated cropland decreased.
While Arkansas has an abundance of good quality ground water in most parts of the state, ground water is being depleted faster than the rate of recharge in the primary agricultural area for cultivated crops.
Though there is a critical decline of ground water in the aquifer beneath these increasingly irrigated acres, NRCS uses its programs and technical expertise to install systems that convert from ground water use to surface water use utilizing the state’s abundant annual rainfall (40-50").
Along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Natural Resource Commission (ANRC), and Irrigation District Partners, NRCS is planning and implementing several irrigation water conservation/management projects within Arkansas in our most productive agricultural areas. (Figure 15)