Program Information

Water is critical to all living things, especially to plant growth. When rainfall doesn't provide enough ground moisture, farmers irrigate. Irrigation is the artificial watering of the land to sustain plant growth, and dates back to 5000 B.C.

ABCs of Agriculture informs about Virginia's farming community and how it affects you. ABCs of Agriculture are produced by the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) - an educational program which encourages and enhances agricultural literacy in Grades K-5 and 6-8.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the ABC’s of Agriculture…. I’m Professor Brad and today’s lesson is on I which stands for Irrigation.

This is critical for all living things. Especially plant growth. So… what do farmers need when rainfall does not provide enough ground moisture…. That’s right… Irrigation.

Irrigation is the artificial watering of the land to sustain plant growth. Historically… it’s no mere drop in the bucket. Irrigation can give some communities the ability to produce their own food where they could not before.

The earliest records of irrigation date back 5000 BC…. Today about 10 percent of farmland is irrigated in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of that land is concentrated in 17 Western States. The most recent statistics show that 23 hundred farms in Virginia use irrigation on nearly 85 thousand acres.

That’s a lot of land to soak! For the ABC-s of Agriculture…. I’m Professor Brad… see you next time!

Virginia Standards