this underlines the potential to expand irrigated agriculture which already for a number of countries generates a high and growing share in total agricultural production value in excess of and value of exports more than for example in italy mexico spain and the united states crop sales only oecd this is being achieved in many oecd countries through better management and uptake of more efficient technologies such as drip irrigation and adoption of other water saving farm practices in addition many countries are undertaking agricultural and water policy reforms that seek to transmit the value of supplying water to irrigators by lowering support for water supplied to agriculture which in some cases has led to allocation of water to higher valued commodities which frequently require less water such as vines and horticultural crops oecd a australia stands out as the oecd country making the largest improvement in irrigation water application rates consistently over the two decades from to figure