Turning corporate ESG budgets into on-farm irrigation upgrades

In just three short years, the Precision Irrigation Access Program has leveraged corporate cost-share funding to help 27 family farms across seven states upgrade more than 3,200 acres to modernized irrigation systems. Collectively, the irrigation upgrades are estimated to reduce water usage by more than 1.8 billion gallons annually. 

“That’s roughly the daily water use of a small to mid-sized U.S. city or town of 10,000-50,000 people or enough to fill 2,765 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” said Val Fishman, the advocacy and development consultant for Orbia Precision Agriculture (Netafim).  

Irrigation upgrades are just part of the reason the Precision Irrigation Access Program (PIAP) was named the Irrigation Association’s 2026 Vanguard Award winner in the agriculture category. Connecting corporate funding with on-farm irrigation projects and orchestrating what it takes to unite corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives with on-farm irrigation projects is no small feat. Traditionally, sustainability initiatives have focused on carbon credits and renewable energy projects. 

“Increasingly over the past decade, companies have been working to achieve regenerative agricultural goals and water stewardship goals,” said Fishman. She has been instrumental in setting the vision and developing the PIAP as well playing a key role in forming the Ag Modernization Fund in California, working with the California Water Resilience Initiative, a collaborative group of NGOs and corporations to move beyond one-off, highly customized deals to pool corporate funding and align it with a portfolio of farmers, allowing dollars to go further and reach more operations. 

Here, Fishman offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the program works, its current and future impacts. 

The difference between watershed and carbon credit initiatives 

Unlike carbon reduction and offset initiatives, which can be global, water is local, and that influences how companies consider water stewardship projects. For example, a corporation can restore a forest anywhere in the world and the global atmosphere benefits. But a water project in Kansas can’t positively impact water in California. As a result, corporate water stewardship budgets must be set locally.  

“Agricultural efficiency is one of the tools in the entire menu of options corporations have to select from when they go and try to achieve water stewardship goals,” Fishman said. 

Companies are mapping their water footprints and sometimes their operational impacts overlap with major agricultural production zones. This is becoming increasingly more common with the rise of data centers. 

“What we’re seeing is that these data centers and the watersheds they’re going to impact can overlay with agricultural production,” Fishman said. “One of the ways those companies can achieve their water stewardship goals is by investing in farms that want to do things on their farm that will do good things for water.” 

Differing corporate goals, priorities and requirements also make it challenging to connect cost-sharing investments to farm upgrades. The Precision Irrigation Access Program, led by Orbia Precision Agriculture (Netafim), is helping address adoption barriers so farmers, corporate partners and implementation organizations can accelerate irrigation modernization in water-stressed regions. 

“Instead of trying to find one farm that fits Keurig Dr Pepper’s needs and then find another farm that fits General Mills’ needs and a third that aligns with Meta, et cetera, a collaborative group can have greater impact and scale,” she said. 

Since its public launch in 2024, the program has advanced irrigation modernization across more than 3,200 acres, delivering significant, data-backed water savings while introducing a collaborative co-investment model using standardized measurement and reporting.  

By expanding access to capital, increasing adoption of precision irrigation technologies and supporting long-term water resilience goals, it is reshaping how irrigation modernization is funded, implemented and scaled in the United States and globally. 

Irrigation upgrades have taken place on numerous crops with success ranging from forage crops such as alfalfa, corn and wheat to rotational vegetables like tomatoes and peppers to permanent crops, including apples, almonds and olives. Successful partnerships have also occurred on farms growing beans, cotton, garlic, melons, soybeans, sunflowers and sugarcane. 

A look ahead 

So far, more than 10 corporate partners including Keurig Dr Pepper; Swire Coca-Cola, USA; Chipotle; PepsiCo; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; General Mills; Niagara Cares; Meta and others have signed up for water conservation investments.  

While the program has seen early and impressive successes, Fishman cautioned that it is nuanced and requires intense collaboration among stakeholders to bring to fruition.  

“There is opportunity out there, but it is very different than a public grant process and securing the money for a project is harder than what many people think,” she said. 

The official Vanguard Award will presented at the General Session held during the 2026 Irrigation Show Association and Education week in Las Vegas. Dec. 7-10, 2026. During the show, Fishman will share more details about the collaborative and the nuances of connecting corporate sustainability funds with farmers to support in-field irrigation upgrades.  

“It is an honor to have the Precision Irrigation Access Program selected as a Vanguard winner this year,” Fishman said. “Hopefully, the award draws more corporate attention to encourage more corporate parties to come to the table and start being part of the water stewardship collective.” 

Photos by Netafim