The introduction is missing from the recording – here are the basic – Steven Wallander and Marcel Aillery of USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) along with members of the WestFAST and WSWC on a new Survey of Irrigation Organizations under development by ERS and USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) with additional support from USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE). The purpose of this project is to collect current information on irrigation water-supply management entities: irrigation districts (and other private entities) as well as groundwater management districts, as part of the USDA’s data development and research on drought resilience and farm-level irrigation decisions. A national census or survey of irrigation organizations in forty years. In that time, many aspects of local water management institutions have changed, including the number and size of irrigation organizations, the pricing structures used for cost recovery, the reliance on new sources of water quantity data, and an expanded emphasis on groundwater management. The new survey of irrigation organizations will develop a dataset on district-scale characteristics and resource use, with special emphasis on water allocation institutions and conservation policies that impact farm-level drought response and resiliency.
