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A Utah grant program is aiming to incentivize farmers to optimize their water use.

Historically, Utah agriculture has accounted for up to 80 percent of the state's water consumption, but the state's Agricultural Water Optimization Program is an initiative using state and federal funds to lower the financial barriers for ag producers to modernize and update their irrigation equipment.

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Hannah Freeze, Agricultural Water Optimization Program manager for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said it covers half the cost of purchasing new, more efficient equipment. She explained the Utah Legislature and the federal government have allocated $276 million for the program and describes it as a step in the right direction, especially with agriculture being what she called "nonnegotiable."

"It is essential to everything that we do in life," Freeze pointed out. "As we continue to use the scarce water that we have for agricultural purposes, this program allows our producers to be the best stewards of that precious resource. Our farmers are truly the first environmentalists."

Freeze added the program boils down to helping farmers use the scarce water the state has to still be able to meet agricultural demands. She noted it was only after capturing federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act that the program "got a big shot in the arm." Since 2019, the program continues to see increased interest but has only been able to fund around half of the projects in the state.

The 2025 application period runs through February 28.

Freeze stressed the biggest requirement to be eligible for the program is for a project to be directly tied to agricultural water use. She recognized irrigation needs across the state of Utah are diverse.

"We try to be open to all of the different needs based on the regions that the producers are in," Freeze added. "The real hard stop is, you've got to have 'ag water' to be able to participate. And other than that, we try to be accommodating with all the other projects."

Freeze emphasized the program has committed hundreds of millions of government dollars to help optimize water use and while the state helps administer half of the cost of the infrastructure projects, the other half comes from the farmers themselves.

"If that doesn't say they are stepping up, they are here to help, they are at the table and they understand the role that they play as we optimize water use in the West, I don't know what does," Freeze concluded.