The development of irrigated agriculture is a strategic direction of sustainable development of the agrarian sector of economy, ensuring national food security, increasing export potential and efficient use of land and resource potential. The purpose of the article is to systematically analyze the economic framework for the development of irrigated agriculture in Ukraine. The methodological basis of the study is a systematic approach, within which the following general scientific and special methods have been used: analysis, synthesis, generalization, abstraction, historical and comparative analysis, monographic and systemic analysis, formalization, and graphing. The historical and economic background of the development of irrigated agriculture in Ukraine has been analyzed, with five stages of its genesis identified: 1840–1917 (the beginning of irrigation and justification of its feasibility on the ground); 1918–1941 (construction of the first irrigation systems, collective and state farm amelioration networks); 1946–1960 (post-war reconstruction of irrigation systems and construction of large hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs); 1961–1990 (construction of large state and inter-farm irrigation systems, active development of irrigated agriculture); 1991–2021 (gradual decline of the state irrigation network; development of drip irrigation). The size and structure of sown areas on irrigated lands in Ukraine, the structure of sown areas under drip irrigation, and the comparative yield of major crops in agricultural enterprises of Ukraine under irrigation conditions have been systematically studied. It has been shown that economic efficiency in irrigated agriculture is formed under the influence of cost and price mechanisms, and investment decisions are based on the programmability of the yields obtained and the payback of costs by increasing production, and the development of micro-irrigation is economically feasible in small areas of high-intensity crops