The Changing Shape Of Farming

Garden City, Kansas, is at the heart of the American breadbasket where farmers grow corn, wheat and sorghum and raise cattle. Over the last sixty years, farmers have shifted their operations from rain fed-oriented agriculture to low-cost groundwater pumps and a technique called "center-pivot irrigation" to essentially mine for water locked deep underground. Center-pivot irrigation is a labor and water-saving method that has revolutionized agriculture worldwide, increasing yields and allowing food production in areas where plants would otherwise wither from drought. With this method, the water for growing crops is pumped directly from groundwater wells in the center of a field to a long pipe studded with low-hanging sprinklers. The pipe rotates from the center like the hand of a clock, watering the fields. The switch to this irrigation method has transformed Garden City’s farmland over time, with large circular plots taking the place of rectangular fields. Explore the images to see a space-based view of the changes captured by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites.

See NASA.gov