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Why does agriculture use so much of the world's freshwater?

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A row of cattle with brown and black coats eat feed from a long trough in a South African feedlot, separated by wooden fencing. — Feed Feedlot cattle eating grain in an intensive animal farm in South Africa.

Agriculture accounts for approximately 70 percent of all global freshwater withdrawals. This high consumption is primarily driven by the widespread use of irrigation to support crop production, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions or during dry periods in humid climates.1234

Several factors contribute to the intensity of this water use:

Inefficient Irrigation Methods: Many agricultural areas rely on surface irrigation, such as flooding fields. This method often provides more water than crops require, leading to significant losses through evaporation and seepage during transport from the water source.2
Scale of Production: To meet the food needs of a growing global population, agriculture has intensified, requiring vast amounts of water to maintain productivity across millions of hectares of land.32
Environmental Conditions: Crops grown in regions with high evaporation rates and minimal rainfall, such as date gardens, require constant, high-volume water inputs.4

To address this, sustainable agriculture advocates for improved water storage, the use of drought-resistant crops, and the implementation of reduced-volume irrigation to minimize waste.2