High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Agriculture in the Southwest United States is very important economically in that region. Much of the land, and most (85%) of the fresh water in the region is used on agriculture. Although there is not a significant amount of land in the Southwest that is used for growing crops, over 60 percent of the land is used as pasture for cattle and sheep. The region gets less rainfall and is warmer than most other areas in the United States, so farming techniques have evolved to accommodate for a drier climate with less permeable soils. The Native Americans of the region had many different methods of farming, and grew many different crops than what is typically grown today in the Southwest by industrial farmers.