Agricultural Drainage:
Status and Importance

Agricultural drainage is a method for lowering the water table to prevent flood damage of crops and enhance access to fields for planting and harvesting. Drainage is required for food production on a large portion of the tillable soils in the Midwest. According to a 1982 survey completed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, there are over 233 million acres of wet soils on private, rural land in the U.S. of this total, 45 percent was cropped and 30 percent forested.

Percent of all cropland that is drained in each North Central State (1985, USDA)