AgriCapture announced a new partnership with Google and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) to replenish 5.4 billion gallons of water in Southeast Texas. The program will bring water-saving irrigation infrastructure to 6,000 acres of rice farmland, reducing irrigation withdrawals in one of the most stressed watersheds in the state.
Globally, rice provides roughly one-fifth of all calories consumed by humans, more than any other single food crop, but that scale comes with a water footprint of over 170 gallons per single pound of finished rice. In Texas, roughly 140,000 rice acres are flood irrigated each year within the Trinity River Basin, a watershed under pressure from agricultural demand, urban growth, and recurring drought.
AgriCapture is partnering directly with Texas rice farmers to improve irrigation systems that optimize water use throughout the growing season and enable farmers to transition away from continuous flooding. Irrigation is measured throughout the project to quantify water savings using flow meters, field sensors, and geospatial monitoring. AgriCapture then quantifies the annual volumetric water benefit of the improved irrigation systems compared to the previous flood irrigation to generate verified volumetric water benefits.
Google is financing the transition, providing the upfront capital investment behind the irrigation infrastructure as well as performance-based financial benefits to farmers for the water they save. Google’s investment is part of a broader commitment to responsibly manage water resources in the communities where it builds and operates data centers.
“This partnership shows what’s possible when smart technology and strong partners come together to strengthen agriculture,” said Tyler Hull, CEO of AgriCapture. “Google is financing system-level change. Improved irrigation infrastructure paired with economic incentives to farmers supports the Texas rice industry while returning 5.4 billion gallons of water to the community watershed.”
Scaling water stewardship across Texas and beyond
The Texas rice program adds to AgriCapture’s growing portfolio of water stewardship and carbon projects across six states in the U.S. and internationally in Brazil, Argentina, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines. Globally, Google has committed over $500 million to water, wastewater, and water reuse infrastructure and now supports 165 water stewardship projects across 97 watersheds. AgriCapture is on a mission to deliver cost-effective water solutions that are community-focused and globally scalable.
