Explore the groundwater program for your orchard.
We are developing a groundwater program for almond, pistachio and citrus growers. You would keep your allocation and your water rights. Any funding, equipment and grower payment would depend on signed agreements. Your adviser would remain in charge of irrigation.
We would review your records for a benchmark comparison or a possible reduction assessment. Eligibility and the baseline would depend on the accepted project method.
The farms this works for.
- A mature almond, pistachio or citrus orchard
- Your own wells, with flow meters in place or to be installed
- Pumping records: meter readings, run hours or power bills
- Drip or microsprinkler irrigation
Unsure? Tell us in the form notes.
Records with gaps: we would review a block with gaps in the 2026 season, or a pump channel still to confirm, after the missing data or channel is resolved. A reduction assessment would also need an accepted baseline and eligibility review. If your GSA estimates field water use by satellite, we get your written permission before pulling those estimated figures.
Want to see which records a project would need? Use the records readiness check. It stays on this device until you send the form.
Read these before you sign up.
Any payment would depend on sponsor funding and the signed agreement. Measurement alone does not create a payment obligation. For benchmark sponsorship, any grower payment follows the signed per-acre agreement and does not require a validated volume. A validated claim needs independent review.
Our proposed baseline will use admissible site-specific historical pumping evidence where coverage and flow documentation are adequate. Blocks without a defensible historical volume may require a prospective measured baseline. Independent reviewers still have to approve how each project adjusts for weather, counts the GSA allocation and sets the baseline dates. Pumping less groundwater than your baseline counts only if the project method and your GSA’s accounting rules allow it. Pumping cuts your GSA already requires never count, and we do not count estimated changes in crop water use.
For each sponsor-used recorded reduction, you agree in writing not to sell or transfer the water or allocation behind it, or use it to irrigate newly planted acreage, during the agreed claim period.
Before any volume is recorded, we check GSA transfers, carryover water, later pumping, required SGMA cuts and other funded programs, so no water is counted twice. Final treatment will follow the accepted project method and the applicable GSA account rules.
No attributed volume may be claimed twice. Any future claim would follow the agreed attribution, project controls and applicable GSA account rules.
A season with no reduction, or with more pumping, stays in the record at its measured or estimated value. It supports no volumetric claim.
On Platform, your own Certified Crop Adviser or adviser makes the call. On Managed, our Certified Crop Adviser does.
Terms are set in a written agreement.
Important
This page describes a program. It is not an offer or a contract.
Eligibility, payment and the benefit period are set in a signed written agreement, and nowhere else.
Payment terms are in the conditions above.
Nothing on this page promises a payment, equipment or a water benefit.
On Platform, your own Certified Crop Adviser or adviser makes the call. On Managed, our Certified Crop Adviser does. Nothing here is agronomic, legal or tax advice.
Check if your farm fits
We reply by email. Sending this form does not commit you to anything. This page describes a program, not an offer or a contract.
How a proposed orchard project would be assessed.
Your wells
Metered pumping on your own wells. Where there is no meter, an estimate from logged pump run-time, labeled estimated on the record, until one goes in.
Our sensors and readings
Soil probes on your blocks, stem water potential (SWP) readings by our crew on the monitoring plan’s schedule, and CIMIS weather.
Signed record
Probe readings are sealed into a signed, tamper-evident chain once each logger day closes. Each issued water order is kept with the readings behind it; the order itself is not signed. Well-meter readings that reach us through telemetry are sealed into the same signed chain as they arrive, checked every 10 minutes. Each record labels a value measured or estimated and states its source, including an agency report.
Independent check before any validated claim
Each figure is labeled measured or estimated. Any validated claim would need an independent review under an accepted method. No validator has been appointed.
Signed agreements
Any sponsor funding and grower payment would be set in signed agreements. Payment terms are in the conditions section.
One season, one record
A project would use baseline records and season monitoring to assess any reduction. No unit record has been issued.
- Baseline records
- and meters
- Season monitoring
- adviser makes every call
- Unit records, proposed
- none issued yet
- Independent check
- no validator appointed
- Any sponsor claim
- per the signed agreement
Five proposed checks before any validated claim.
Your pumping records
Historical pumping records may support a baseline where coverage and flow evidence are adequate. Otherwise, a prospective measured baseline may be required. Final eligibility and baseline rules are established project by project.
Checked in the orchard
Stem water potential (SWP) readings document how the trees are doing through the season. They do not measure pumped volume.
Independently reviewed
A third party would review AgWaterAI’s volume calculation under an accepted method before any validated volume is reported. VWBA 2.0 is accounting guidance, not an approval. No validator has been appointed.
Reconciled with your GSA
Any volume would be checked against your GSA account and your allocation. Your GSA’s number is the official one.
Protected
During the agreed claim period, the water and allocation behind a sponsor-used recorded reduction cannot be sold, transferred or used to irrigate newly planted acreage.
Steps depend on the project tier.
- Eligibility check and any required baselineWe check whether your farm fits, then propose a baseline from admissible historical pumping evidence where coverage and flow documentation are adequate. Blocks without a defensible historical volume may need a prospective measured baseline. Independent reviewers still have to approve how we adjust for weather, count your GSA allocation and set the baseline dates.
- Sensors installed by our field teamA signed project agreement would specify whether sponsor funding covers sensors and installation.
- Monitored seasonsWe monitor through the season with SWP readings, and comparison blocks where the accepted protocol requires them. Your adviser keeps making the irrigation calls.
- Validation for the validated tierFor any validated claim, AgWaterAI or an appointed technical adviser would quantify the reduced withdrawal under an accepted method, and an independent third party would review the method, the evidence and the result. No validator has been appointed.
- Written agreements before any paymentAny grower payment, eligible costs and payment basis would be agreed in writing before a project begins. Payment terms are in the conditions section.
AgWaterAI shows orchard growers their water use against their groundwater allocation each week. On Platform, your own Certified Crop Adviser or adviser makes the call. On Managed, our Certified Crop Adviser does.