The Ag Modernization Fund: A practical path for irrigation upgrades

Capital is a constant barrier many growers encounter when considering the transition to an efficient irrigation system, such as drip or micro irrigation. With the cost pressures farmers face today, supporting them means being proactive not only with better tools and services, but with cost-sharing models that deliver measurable impact and outcomes. 

This year, the California Water Resilience Initiative (CWRI) in partnership with Netafim North America and LimnoTech, piloted a pooled approach to help offset these financial hurdles. The goal is to create collective action supporting CWRI’s mission to reduce 1 million acre-feet per year by 2030. 

The new Ag Modernization Fund aggregates financial support from multiple corporations and directs it to farms seeking to upgrade their irrigation systems. The funding also supports an independent benefits summary and is structured to generate annual reporting. The model has already delivered its first projects and is designed for eventual replication across the United States. 

The fund, which closed in 2025, raised $320,000 from Keurig Dr Pepper, Gilead Sciences and General Mills, with the money directed to five California family farms. In total, these farms are modernizing irrigation for 235 acres across Colusa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Fresno counties. Projects underway include subsurface drip irrigation for processing tomatoes and lima beans; drip and micro sprinklers for almonds; and a 95-acre conversion from flood-irrigated raisins to drip-irrigated almonds in Fresno. 

The expected impact from this first round of upgrades is about 491 acre-feet saved per year, which is roughly 160 million gallons, or the equivalent of 242 Olympic pools.  

For growers, practical outcomes include precision water and fertilizer application, reduced runoff and fewer pumping hours, reducing energy usage. For those growing crops in areas facing groundwater restrictions and uncertain surface deliveries, this enables a meaningful water demand reduction without fallowing ground.  

This innovative effort pools financial resources and assigns projects based on need and readiness. 

Grower interest in the project exceeded available funding, but organizers plan to close a few funds per year, subject to demand and partner commitments. Early rounds prioritized farms that were still using flood systems and were ready to install microirrigation. Installations are set to finish by the end of 2025, with first full-season use in 2026. 

In this challenging agricultural economy, cost sharing is evolving toward pooled, multi-project support that can move faster at the farm level. Verification is standardized, reducing paperwork while improving comparability. Farmers who are saving baseline numbers on water applied, energy use and yields will be better positioned to speed evaluation when new funding windows open.