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Agriculture & Water

Thanks to our climate, innovation, and sustainable water management, Arizona farmers produce more food of higher quality,
more efficiently than ever before.
Our farmers also produce at times of the year that cannot be
replicated anywhere else in the world!
We all need local agriculture, and our local agriculture needs water.

Friendly Reminder: Water use is not water waste.
Click on the links below to open the webpage or documents.

Press Conference opposing an AMA in Gila Bend and supporting SB 1221.

Introduced Water Legislation:

Basin Management Areas

Senate Bill 1221

Governor's Water Policy Council information:

Related Documents:

 

What does Arizona Farm Bureau believe about regulating water?

  • We need statewide efforts when it comes to water planning, but those efforts should be subject to local community support and control. ​

  • We believe any statewide water plan should be designed to support increasing city populations in the Active Management Areas (AMAs) while maintaining a significant agricultural industry in Arizona. Where development occurs within AMA’s and INA’s, it should be on land with a historical use of water.

  • We support the use of groundwater on agricultural lands and grandfathered irrigation rights on lands with historic water use. We also believe that, where feasible, surface water should be used rather than groundwater.

  • We support the continued use of the best management practices alternative conservation plan, as part of a workable, economically and environmentally sound plan for agricultural water management and conservation.

  • Any mandatory conservation program for agriculture must be economically, agronomically and technically feasible and reflect differences in farming conditions and cropping patterns.

  • No government policy should be used to interfere with agricultural use of water, as long as a source of water is available.

  • We support water augmentation efforts for communities and watersheds, where those efforts enhance supplies without negatively impacting another area.

  • Water transfers should be transparent, consider all community impacts and be subject to local control.

  • The Department of Water Resources should be adequately funded to meet public expectations and legal obligations.

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