Support Water-Efficient Strategies and Technologies Act of 2025
The Support Water-Efficient Strategies and Technologies Act of 2025 would revise the Food Security Act of 1985 to promote and financially incentivize drought-resilient and water-saving farming practices. Key changes include allowing, and in some cases expanding, cost-sharing payments to cover up to 85% of eligible costs for drought-resilient and water-saving practices; adding specific perennial production systems and agroforestry options to eligible rotations and payments; broadening the Conservation Stewardship Program’s (CSP) supplemental payments to account for income forgone when transitioning to resource-conserving practices, including perennial systems; lowering barriers by updating definitions and payment structures; capping total payments at $200,000 per 5-year period; and emphasizing soil health with outreach and soil health testing payments. The bill is sponsored in the House by Rep. Leger Fernández (with Reps. Valadao and Pingree as cosponsors) and referred to the Agriculture Committee. In short, the bill aims to accelerate adoption of water-efficient farming and long-lived, perennial or agroforestry-based systems by increasing and broadening payments, expanding eligible practices, and prioritizing soil health and carbon sequestration.
Key Points
- 1Increased payments for drought-resilient or water-saving practices: The secretary may pay up to 85% of eligible costs for certain practices focused on drought resilience and water conservation, beyond the standard payment levels. Eligible practices include drought-resilient farming that can operate in water-deficient environments and conservation practices that save surface or groundwater, reduce runoff, improve rain absorption, or facilitate a transition from irrigated to non-irrigated dryland farming.
- 2Supplemental payments for resource-conserving management, including perennial systems: The bill expands Conservation Stewardship Program provisions to cover land uses under contracts, refines language about income forgone (to reflect risks and revenue losses from transitions to resource-conserving or perennial systems), and adds emphasis on actively managed and improved management practices.
- 3Expanded scope to perennial production systems: The act adds perennial production systems to the list of covered rotations and introduces explicit definitions for agroforestry (including alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, multi-story cropping) and perennial forages or grain crops as eligible components of rotations and payments.
- 4Payment limits: The annual 5-year cap on payments would be $200,000 per person or legal entity (excluding Indian tribes’ funding arrangements), regardless of the number of contracts.
- 5Soil health focus: The bill directs the Secretary to prioritize soil health in program design and to offer payments for soil health testing to better understand and document soil health and carbon sequestration impacts.