Social Responsibility

Fresh Produce Growers Focus on Water for Sustainability

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:23:01 GMT

When asked what top three words came to mind when thinking about sustainability, respondents to The Packer’s 2025 Sustainability Insights Survey overwhelmingly responded with “water.”

Every year, The Packer conducts three Sustainability Insights surveys — one each for produce growers, retailers and consumers — on their perceptions and opinions related to sustainability in fresh produce. In this year’s survey, 74 fresh produce growers representing 29 states responded. Though the response rate means the results are not necessarily widely applicable to growers across the country, they represent a good snapshot.

Generally speaking, water-related concerns were very important to produce growers when it comes to sustainability.

One respondent from California defined it as “taking care of our resources so as to not waste them or use them up without renewing.” A Virginia-based respondent defined it as a “long-term business plan that addresses local scarcities of energy, labor, water or other inputs.”

Growers consistently ranked water among the top three issues depending on context. Precision irrigation is high on the list of sustainability investments growers are making, and the focus on water issues in the sustainability conversation seems to be increasing. Unfortunately, so too is uncertainty over the availability of water in the future.

Prioritizing Water in Sustainability

When asked to rank the importance of various sustainability practices for their impact, grower respondents overwhelmingly crowned water management efforts as the most important.

All told, 73 of the 74 total respondents listed water use management practices as being important, very important or extremely important for their impact on the sustainability of their operation. No respondent said it wasn’t important, and almost a third of respondents (31%) ranked it extremely important, which far outstripped the next most important category of biological inputs at 19%.

“Water use management practices” was an option for the first time in the 2025 Sustainability Insights Grower survey and topped the priority list.

(Chart courtesy of Prime46)

There have been some wording changes in survey questions between 2024 and 2025. This year was the first year that “water use management practices” was offered as an option in questions about sustainability impacts. In 2024’s survey, where there was no specific option for water practices in the comparable question, the top-ranked sustainability practice was “precision ag practices.” The same option was also available in 2025’s question, but only 18% of respondents listed it as “extremely important,” ranking it third in importance in 2025.

This suggests precision water use practices have been and continue to be top of mind for sustainability impact for growers for a while.

Unsurprisingly, those in the arid West ranked water use management practices as having a big impact on their operations’ sustainability. All 18 of the survey’s respondents from California ranked the option as either extremely important or very important (nine each), for example. Similarly, four out of the five respondents from Montana ranked it as extremely important, and both of the Texas respondents ranked it very important.

Precision Irrigation and Water Uncertainty

When it comes to putting those water sustainable priorities into action, over half of the survey’s respondents (51%) reported having implemented some form of water management improvements in their operation. It was the second-most common sustainability practice reported after soil testing (65%) and tied with crop rotation.

When asked about specific tech investments, 38% of respondents reported using precision irrigation tools on their operation. This was the single-most common tech investment reported.

Precision irrigation was the single most common sustainability tech investment reported by respondents to The Packer’s 2025 Grower Sustainability Insights survey.

(Graphic courtesy of Prime46)

This need for precision irrigation tools will likely increase as respondents overwhelming reported turning to precision irrigation to address water availability worries. While overall respondent concern about water availability fell — with 29% reporting being very or extremely concerned in 2025 compared to 49% last year — grower uncertainty about when negative impacts of lack of water will hit their operation jumped from 25% in 2024 to 39% in 2025.

However, when asked how well irrigation service providers are meeting their needs for sustainable agricultural supplies, a whopping 49% of respondents said providers were only somewhat meeting their needs. Only a quarter of respondents said irrigation service providers were completely meeting their needs. This suggests there is considerable room for improvement among companies supplying precision irrigation tools for produce growers.

Microsoft-Partnered Project Funds Improved Irrigation in CA

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 22:18:29 GMT

In early summer, Kilimo — a Latin America-based climatech company focused on improving agricultural water security — announced it had launched an irrigation improvement project in California’s Central Valley in partnership with Microsoft and Netafim.

According to Kilimo, the farms participating in the new Central Valley project raise forage crops such as winter grass and summer silage corn, wheat and tomatoes. Like previous similar projects with Microsoft in Chile and Mexico, the new project will transition participating farmers currently using flood irrigation to drip irrigation.

“The conversion to drip irrigation is going to be fully financed by us and the corporate partner,” says Jairo Trad, CEO and co-founder of Kilimo. He stresses that this partnership is quite unique: “This is a private stakeholder financing another private stakeholder without the government intervening.”

Based on past results in earlier projects, Kilimo estimates the water savings could approach 50%.

Microsoft’s involvement in the project is part of its commitment to becoming water positive by 2030 . This commitment includes supporting projects that replenish more water than the company consumes.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with Kilimo and Netafim to support farmers in saving water in California’s Central Valley,” says Eliza Roberts, water lead at Microsoft, in a news release. “Irrigation conversion is a critical solution that preserves water and supports farmers in combating climate challenges.”

California irrigation ripe for improvement

Trad explains that Microsoft’s partnership on projects like the new Central Valley one is not just corporate responsibility, but pragmatic and proactive.

“Microsoft, like many other tech companies, understands that they have risk tied to water,” he says, giving examples like data centers that need water for cooling or manufacturing companies that use water in their processes. “Most of the water we use is in agriculture, so if you want to invest in reducing water risk, you have to work in the agricultural sector.”

As of 2023, an impressive 4.36 million acres (52.6%) of California’s 7.76 million acres of irrigated cropland were already under some form of drip or similarly efficient irrigation system. Across the country, there were only 6.43 million total acres under such systems, meaning California represented roughly two-thirds of the country’s total.

However, California also used 22.6 million acre feet of irrigation water — over three times that of the next-highest irrigator, Nebraska at 6.8 maf — making it the largest user of irrigation water in the country. It also had 2.95 million acres irrigated via gravity systems, which include various forms of flood irrigation.

Trad positions using flood irrigation is an example of a low-value use of water.

“Water is perpetually undervalued, even in areas where water is extremely scarce like California,” he says. It’s not that agriculture should have to pay more, he adds. “The question is: How can we realign incentives?”

Private-private partnerships

That is what partnerships like this one are trying to do, according to Trad. He describes such efforts as bringing new financing opportunities to farmers to improve their irrigation systems. But to get investments from companies like Microsoft, the water savings that might come from the switch must be measured and well documented. That’s where Kilimo comes in, Trad says.

“We have developed a solution and a set of methodologies that allow us to measure the volumetric water benefits in a way that is scalable, secure, comparable and that allows companies to be sure that the investment they are doing is well used and well measured,” he says.

The value proposition for participating farmers is great, too, he adds.

“They get a fully paid irrigation system,” he summarizes. “What we ask for in return — and this is us, not Microsoft — is access to the data. How much are you irrigating? So, we can prove that you are saving water.”

That and maintenance of the new equipment is an “extremely light” ask, Trad says. He compares it to the strings attached to government financing. He also calls this style of private-private partnership between water users and corporate organizations looking to mitigate their water risk an important growing trend.

“Companies are investing heavily in this,” he says. “This is private stakeholders engaging in reshaping how other private stakeholders are using water because they think that is going to be good for them too. And that’s great! What we need is for more people to do this.”

How to change the face of agriculture

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 16:57:11 GMT

It’s no wonder Michael Smith wasn’t comfortable with pursuing a career in agriculture when he started college at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo.

He wasn’t aware of all opportunities in this broad field, and, as a young African American man growing up in Chicago, it wasn’t something anyone he knew was doing.

But while in college, Smith discovered the local chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), and learned that he could make an impact and pursue a meaningful career in food and agricultural sciences. Now, Smith is a senior, an agriculture major and president of the school’s MANRRS chapter.

“Agriculture was a major I wasn’t real comfortable with, but when I joined MANRRS, it was like family. And it wasn’t just one ethnicity. It was black, it was white, it was a good mixing pot,” Smith said. “I appreciated that because it had the feeling of inclusion. MANRRS offers that, but people have to be open to being included.”

This is the kind of broader awareness and change advocates for minorities in agriculture are seeking.

With those goals in mind, Aug. 22-28 has been declared Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Week by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson. The proclamations, which coincide with the KC Animal Health Corridor’s Digital Animal Health Summit beginning Aug. 24, are to help change perceptions of agricultural careers and encourage greater inclusion of minority-represented populations to build a more prosperous, creative and innovative industry.

It’s needed: The ratio of professionals in the agriculture industry is not representative of the American population.

Of the 3.4 million farmers nationwide, about 7% are minorities — including Hispanic, American Indian, African American and Asian. That ratio that has remained relatively flat in recent years, according to a 2019 Western Growers Association article .

Almost 62% of the U.S. population identify as white alone, so that means 38% of the population identifies as another race or ethnicity, either alone or in combination with white or other groups, according to the 2020 U.S. Census .

To recruit more minorities in agriculture sciences and related food industries, the young people need to be aware of these fields and what they involve, before college and during college, according to a 1997 Journal of Agricultural Education article by Zelia Wiley, assistant dean and director of diversity programs at the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University.

Minority populations need exposure to these fields of study, and then, once they gain that knowledge, their perceptions and attitudes can shift, which ultimately leads to behavior change.

“Our goal is to change the face of agriculture. We know we can do it, one day at a time,” Wiley said. “Most ethnic groups that are underserved, most have a negative view of agriculture.”

For instance, many African Americans think of slavery when they think of agriculture, so changing that perception requires a lot of outreach and education.

Today, Wiley has been a member of MANRRS for more than 30 years, is the Kansas State University MANRRS chapter advisor and president of the national society of MANRRS. In 2003, she was the first black woman hired with a doctorate degree in agriculture and extension education at Kansas State’s agriculture college.

Of course, there’s the FFA and the 4H, where all people are invited to join, “but all students don’t feel included or embraced. It’s all about having an informed choice,” she said.

Everybody is part of an ethnic group, Wiley said.

“I’m doing this for everyone. We want to get more individuals knowledgeable. The only way we can work together, is that we all have to be informed of each other. Diversity and inclusion are the way,” Wiley said.

The MANRRS chapters hold outreach events, fundraisers, take students on farm tours and hold trainings in professional etiquette, such as in interviews, Zoom calls and on social media. The organization also connects students with large agriculture companies, serving as an empowering networking resource.

To succeed at retaining young professionals in agriculture, employers need to make people like Smith feel like part of the team, offer chances for them to have a voice, and provide motivation for what they’re doing, he said.

Many students — especially those who are the first generation in their family to go to university — don’t know what to do when they get there, Smith said.

“MANRRS helped me find where I needed to go and helped put me in the direction that, even though it was scary and it was unknown, I was willing to take a chance,” he said. “How are we ever going to integrate, how are we ever going to be one, if we don’t try?”