Why does agriculture account for such a large share of global water withdrawals?

Agriculture accounts for approximately 70 percent of all available global freshwater withdrawals primarily due to the extensive requirements of irrigation.1

This high demand stems from several factors:

• Crop Requirements: Different crops have significant water needs to reach maturity. For example, rice cultivation often requires large volumes of water, sometimes necessitating that fields remain flooded during the growing process.23
• Inefficient Delivery Methods: Many agricultural regions rely on surface irrigation, such as simple flooding. This method often inundates fields with more water than crops actually require, leading to substantial losses through evaporation and seepage during transport from the water source.1
• Expansion of Arable Land: Irrigation is a fundamental tool for reclaiming and improving land, allowing for farming in arid zones that would otherwise be unproductive. As the global population grows, the practice of expanding irrigated acreage continues to increase to meet food demands.45

While sustainable farming practices aim to reduce waste through methods like reduced-volume irrigation, the sheer scale of global food production makes agriculture the largest consumer of freshwater resources.1