There is a technology component not yet discussed. Agriculture mainly still use flood (a.k.a. furrow) irrigation. Colorado is semi-arid, so the evaporation loss

There is a technology component not yet discussed. Agriculture mainly still use flood (a.k.a. furrow) irrigation. Colorado is semi-arid, so the evaporation loss is much worse than in the Midwest. And even worse evaporation happens with spray irrigation, but less runoff loss. The solutions thus far try to avoid runoff (surge irrigation) or recapture runoff. Nevertheless agriculture consumes a huge amount of water and in Colorado right now in effect the practice exports water. There is a huge cost looming, whether change happens or not.