Irrigation and the future of U.S. Agriculture

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, irrigation sits at the intersection of water stewardship, farm viability and technology adoption. In a wide-ranging conversation with Irrigation Association Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs Andrew D. Morris, NRCS Chief Aubrey J.D. Bettencourt discussed why she’s pushing “farmer-first” modernization inside the agency, how precision irrigation and precision ag fit into NRCS priorities, and what stronger industry partnerships, including through Technical Service Providers, could mean for producers trying to make long-term investments in on-farm water management. Conducted in January 2026, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Andrew D. Morris: You’ve had several leadership roles connected to water, ag and irrigation before coming to NRCS. How have those experiences shaped the way you approach this role today?

Aubrey J.D. Bettencourt: My whole career has always been where water and agriculture meet, and that has expanded wonderfully over the course of my career.

I became a water nerd right out of college, really interested in the history of water rights in California and the development of laws and regulations that were affecting water supply as it pertains to agriculture. Because that was my home. That was my family. I was looking at the world and what was happening in the world of policy and regulation, data and science, and tech and engineering — and how they were affecting our decisions on the farm every day.

To bring my perspective from the farm was really important coming in as chief, with me being the first chief in about 40 years to come from the field. Field experience is a hallmark of Secretary (of Agriculture Brooke) Rollins and her initiative around Farmers First. My entire political leadership team came from the field. I wanted a team that remembered what it was like to either be a customer or a partner, to know what it meant to walk into the agency at the county level, to know what it meant to fill out an EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) application, to know what it meant to get a letter saying you weren’t awarded this year, and to know all the good and the struggles of the agency over time.

Farmers are adapting and adopting new technologies, looking for ways, especially as a Westerner, to address the uncertainty around water supply. Precision and data collection are so important for decision-making.

One of the biggest things we’re doing at NRCS is going to a one-farmer, one-file digital-based platform. Thinking back, my father was tired of having to drive 50 miles back to the NRCS office to sign the same piece of paper that he signed for FSA (Farm Service Agency) the week before. So, it’s very much reverse engineered: coming at it from that farmer perspective, and then from the water perspective, looking at how NRCS plays a larger role in the water space, both on-farm and across the federal family.

Morris: With all the priorities you have as chief, where does irrigation fit into the major initiatives you’ve rolled out?

Bettencourt: If everything’s important, nothing’s important.

One priority is modernizing the agency by consolidating internal systems and streamlining processes. It’s that underlying infrastructure that will make us responsive. We need to be capable of intersecting with farmers who are walking out there with iPads. So, modernizing the department and the agency means going to one farmer, one file, where we have the same customer base as FSA and [the Risk Management Agency]. We need to share information with each other and make that easily accessible and an easier customer service interface.

The next priority for us is streamlining the process. Let’s make it an easier application. Let’s make it easier for batching, for consideration. We’ve eliminated some unnecessarily detailed aspects of applications that basically meant if you didn’t turn in your application and fill it out just right, you weren’t going to be funded.

Another priority is delegating authority back to our locals. We’re delegating that authority back to those closest to the problem, who are closest to the solution, to say, “We’re going to apply this practice code to that application. It makes sense. Let’s go with it.” We want the most appropriate solution for the most appropriate problem. What works in Arizona will not be the same application in eastern Oregon, but we want them both to be financed and both to have a custom system that works for them.

Then we start getting into partnerships and modernizing how we do that. Our priorities align partners for where they need to be delivering and supporting our farmers — and supporting us. It sends shockwaves when the largest conservation organization in the world says we prioritize precision irrigation and precision ag. Our partners know that’s where they need to start lining up, and we come to that conclusion because that’s what we hear from our farmers.

And then there’s giving credit to the farmer, and precision ag, because it comes back to the data and information piece. Farmers for 90 years have been voluntarily enrolling in conservation and innovation through NRCS, and it’s about time we give them credit for what they’ve been doing by allowing them to have measurable results. It’s not enough to measure in dollars and acres anymore. We have to measure what that dollar on the acre accomplished for the farmer, in the marketplace and the regulatory space, and for telling the story of adoption and outcomes.

Precision agriculture is a top priority. We have an opportunity right now in the United States. The existential threat we’re addressing is a shot in the arm to American agriculture, to make us the highest-performing agricultural society in the world, with the highest productivity and the highest level of conservation coexisting.

Irrigation is absolutely a part of that. We’re losing 5,000 acres of farmland a day in the United States, and 2,000 acres a day of that is prime farmland. The faster we can preserve and protect and keep the farmer on that landscape and give them the tools to farm at the best of their ability, that’s the top priority. The secretary says farmers first; we interpret that as keeping farmers farming, and irrigation is a key part of that goal.

Morris: What do you think the broader public and policymakers still misunderstand about irrigation’s role in conservation and food production?

Bettencourt: There’s a misnomer that irrigation is a waste of resources as opposed to a management of resources.

Irrigation is a management practice. When we talk about regenerative agriculture, we are managing a resource. Regenerative agriculture is a management approach: how we manage the resources for soil health, water management and natural vitality. So, irrigation plays a role in regenerative agriculture. It plays a role in sustainable productivity over time.

Morris: From your perspective, what can the irrigation industry do to better partner with NRCS to deliver conservation outcomes?

Bettencourt: I am looking for partners to help me in providing technical services.

We have what’s called the Technical Service Provider program, or TSPs, with NRCS, where we can contract for technical services. A number of irrigation companies are doing this, but I would love to see more. They are our technical expertise: engineers, agronomists, designers who can help provide whole-farm planning.

We are moving back to whole-farm planning, addressing multiple resource concerns on the farm at one time. This is something that our farmers have wanted, but we’ve broken our programs up in a way that didn’t allow for that. We want to move toward working with partners in the irrigation space who can help us do that work — the engineering, the planning, the designing. I’m looking for anyone who meets or exceeds our standards. Let’s get you approved and signed up as a partner.

That becomes a huge opportunity for them and a huge opportunity for us. Outreach has not really been a problem at NRCS. We finance only 1 in 6 applications. What I want to do is service more than one application. And I think the best way for us to do that is to partner with folks in the industry who have the technical expertise, who meet or exceed our standards, and can help us reach those farmers and provide them assistance. Then we can come in with the financial, we can come in with the finals on the technical and we can process them a lot faster. My goal is to reach more farmers on a dollar than what we’ve been doing.

Morris: Looking ahead, what gives you confidence about the future of irrigation and U.S. agriculture?

Bettencourt: When I look at the challenges to the loss of ag land in the United States, the No. 1 thing taking ag land out of production is development. That’s ground we’re not getting back.

So, where I have a lot of hope for irrigation, and where I see a lot of promise, is that the acres we have in active farm production are precious. There’s huge opportunity for irrigation where we can take an acre that the highest and best use [of] is agriculture and increase its conservation of the resources and multiple resource concerns, as well as its productivity, by having more precision irrigation and control over the irrigation.

Morris: Is there anything we haven’t touched on that you’d like to share with our audience?

Bettencourt: I think for us, we really are returning to our foundation as an agency. We’re trying to address this from the farmer’s needs and develop that pull-through for the farmer, both in our partnerships and leveraging them, whether that’s through technical assistance or financial assistance, and ensuring that we have an agency that is the most responsive to them and providing them with resources, data and information they need in a timely fashion.

Particularly in the context of irrigation, which is always an investment, we’re trying to modernize and streamline these programs and also to stick with the farmer as they evolve. When you’re making a choice to invest in an irrigation system, a pressurized system, you’re looking at a three- to five-year investment before you pay that system off. It may decrease your inputs, increase your productivity — in the long run, the math makes sense — but there’s a transition period.

That’s why, for instance, with the regenerative pilot, we have that constructed through our existing EQIP program and our existing [Conservation Stewardship Program] on a five-year contract. We want to stay with the farmer through that transitionary period as much as possible to help them through it — not just the transition of cultural practice, but also the transition from a financial perspective.

We cannot be the NRCS we’ve always been. We’ve got to be the NRCS the farmer needs today, tomorrow and 100 years from now.

Photos courtesy of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

This Q&A with former NRCS Chief Aubrey Bettencourt that was conducted in early 2026 prior to Bettencourt’s resignation from the NRCS and nomination as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner.