At the dawn of the 21st century, the world faces a defining water crisis: global demand is projected to outpace supply by nearly 40% before 2030. Every day, vast volumes are wasted through inefficient agricultural practices, creating direct risks to global food security. In northern Mexico, an area defined by arid and semi-arid conditions, potato production underpins rural livelihoods and international supply chains, yet it relies on severely overdrawn aquifers and outdated irrigation systems operating at barely 40% efficiency. This situation is not just technical, it represents a critical tipping point for climate resilience, basin sustainability, and long-term economic stability.
The opportunity lies in transforming an intensive and vulnerable model into regenerative and resilient agriculture, capable of producing more food with less water while ensuring the continuity of global supply chains. The project across 2,000 hectares in Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Coahuila responds to this challenge with innovative solutions that combine precision irrigation technology, digital monitoring, and sustainable soil management practices. Its strategic objective is to turn potato production into a replicable example of water efficiency, climate resilience, and social sustainability. The project is justified in a context of overexploitation of the Fuerte and Conchos aquifers, transboundary water tensions, and increasing droughts affecting both farmers and urban communities. Agricultural producers, water authorities, and technology providers work in a strategic alliance that ensures additionality, intentionality, and traceability of every cubic meter saved or regenerated. Based on the VWBA 2.0 methodology, volumetric benefits will be measured through reduced consumption indicators (A-2), guaranteeing verifiable field impacts validated under the Water Positive roadmap.
The project introduces a transformative shift in how potatoes are irrigated and nourished in a region historically affected by chronic water scarcity. Rather than relying on inefficient furrow irrigation, the initiative migrates toward automated drip and micro-sprinkler systems combined with digital tools such as soil moisture sensors, weather stations, and precision agriculture platforms. This holistic package not only increases water-use efficiency from 40% to over 85% but also reduces groundwater withdrawals by nearly half, optimizes fertilizer application through fertigation, and enables farmers to adapt irrigation in real time based on climatic and soil conditions. In practical terms, each equipped hectare can save up to 8,000 m³ of water annually, equivalent to the yearly consumption of 40 Mexican households, while raising yields from 30 to 50 tons per hectare, lowering pressure on aquifers and river basins, and significantly cutting agrochemical runoff into surface and groundwater bodies.
The technical opportunity translates into measurable efficiency gains, cost savings, and higher productivity. Strategically, it strengthens climate resilience, supports food security, and consolidates a stronger social license to operate in highly stressed regions. In the short term, farmers benefit from lower pumping costs, higher margins, and improved product quality. In the medium term, a stable and sustainable supply of raw materials is secured, and in the long term, the region enhances its adaptive capacity to climate variability, reducing risks of conflict over water allocation. The root causes being addressed are structural: decades of inefficient irrigation methods, policy frameworks that encouraged overuse, and insufficient modernization. By acting now, the project prevents aquifers from crossing irreversible thresholds and anticipates rising regulatory and social demands for sustainable food production.
Importantly, this model is not limited to potatoes: it is replicable across other crops and regions facing similar stress. It demonstrates that global supply chains working with local producers can not only meet ESG commitments but also lead the transition toward truly Water Positive agriculture that is regenerative, resilient, and future-oriented.
The project is based on the implementation of pressurized irrigation technologies (drip and micro-sprinkler), soil moisture sensors, weather stations, and digital agriculture platforms that optimize every drop of water applied. These solutions were chosen after evaluating less efficient alternatives such as furrow irrigation and conventional sprinkling, which cause losses through evaporation, runoff, and percolation. The initial operational capacity covers 2,000 hectares, with the possibility of progressive scaling across the entire agricultural portfolio in Mexico.
Quantifiable benefits include water savings of up to 16 million m³ over five years, reduced agrochemical leaching, increased yields of up to 20 additional tons of potatoes per hectare, and improved energy efficiency in pumping. Environmentally, the intervention reduces indirect emissions, enhances natural soil infiltration, and decreases diffuse pollution in the Fuerte and Conchos basins. Socially, farmers strengthen their economic stability, access advanced technical training, and consolidate stronger relationships with the market. Strategically, the project complies with the VWBA 2.0 principles of additionality, intentionality, and traceability, aligning its execution with the Water Positive roadmap and providing verifiable data on flows, quality, and efficiency.
Operational risks include hydrological variability, technological failures, and initial acceptance by producers. To mitigate them, redundant irrigation control systems, contingency plans, preventive and predictive maintenance protocols, as well as training programs and shared governance are implemented. In the face of climate change, the solution strengthens resilience by reducing dependence on intensive extractions and ensuring stable production in prolonged drought scenarios. Specific protocols guarantee that no agrochemical contamination or additional aquifer depletion occurs.
The model is scalable to other agricultural regions under water stress, provided that a supportive regulatory framework and public-private-community partnerships exist. Its competitiveness compared to conventional alternatives is justified by its high efficiency, real-time digital traceability, and measurable economic return in less than five years. Through partnerships with local governments, basin organizations, innovation centers, and technology providers, this solution can be replicated and contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, the CEO Water Mandate, and Science Based Targets for Water, accelerating multiple SDGs at the regional and global level.
The project is developed under a staged and adaptive approach, with clearly defined technical phases and estimated timelines. The first stage corresponds to the diagnosis and baseline (8–12 weeks), where historical consumption data (14,000 m³/ha/year with ~40% efficiency), evaporation and percolation losses, runoff quality, and indirect pumping emissions are collected and systematized. Pumping tests, field sampling, IoT sensors, and satellite remote sensing are applied to establish reference KPIs and a verifiable “without project” scenario.
The second phase is the technical design (6–8 weeks), which defines the engineering of drip and micro-sprinkler pressurized irrigation systems, the network of moisture sensors, ultrasonic flowmeters, weather stations, and the SCADA/PLC platform for digital control and telemetry. In the installation phase (2025–2027), equipment is deployed in annual cohorts, progressively covering 20% of the total area with pressure tests and uniformity indexes (CU ≥ 85%). This is followed by the start-up and calibration (4 weeks per block), verifying fertigation algorithms, quality probes, valves, and flowmeters. The validation phase consists of weekly monitoring during the first full season, comparing against the baseline and with external audits confirming the with vs. without project differential. Finally, continuous operation is supported by quarterly preventive maintenance, condition-based predictive maintenance, and immediate corrective maintenance (SLA ≤ 48h), along with a shared governance scheme among producers, the water authority, technology providers, and independent verifiers.
Physical traceability is ensured from source to each plot, and digital traceability is guaranteed through a georeferenced IoT platform with automatic reports, alarms in case of deviations (e.g., EC >1.5 dS/m, NO₃⁻ >10 mg/L-N in drainage, pressure drops or overconsumption >15% vs plan), and tamper-proof cloud records. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: net water consumption (m³/ha/year), crop yield (t/ha), water use efficiency WUE (kg/m³), irrigation uniformity (%CU), nitrate concentration (mg/L), electrical conductivity (dS/m), indirect emissions (kWh/m³), and VWBA A-2 savings (m³). Measurement frequency is weekly for operations, monthly for volumes and inputs, quarterly for water quality, and annually for external audits.
This scheme validates the impact based on VWBA 2.0 principles of additionality, intentionality, and traceability, integrating VWBA/WQBA dashboards with historical with vs. without project series. It also incorporates a continuous improvement system that includes data feedback, annual recalibration of irrigation curves, technology updates, periodic external audits, and rebasing every three years to ensure the permanence and credibility of water and environmental benefits over time.
The project modernizes and comprehensively transforms irrigation practices across 2,000 hectares of potatoes in Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Coahuila, shifting from inefficient furrow irrigation to automated high-efficiency drip and micro-sprinkler systems. The intervention is highly technical: pressurized emitters deliver water directly to the root zone, IoT soil moisture probes provide continuous data, ultrasonic flowmeters measure real-time volumes, weather stations forecast evapotranspiration, and SCADA digital platforms integrate all variables for precise fertigation management. Nutrient dosing is automated through proportional injectors, ensuring delivery only when and where required, minimizing runoff and leaching.
From start to finish, the project follows a structured sequence: baseline diagnosis quantifies current extractions (14,000 m³/ha/year at ~40% efficiency), energy consumption, and agrochemical load in runoff; hydraulic and digital design develops distribution networks, pump and filter sizing, fertigation recipes, and monitoring architecture; staged installation (2025–2027) deploys modules annually to cover 20% of the surface, each validated for uniformity coefficient (CU ≥85%) and pressure stability; start-up and calibration align sensors, valves, flowmeters, and algorithms with crop phenology; and independent validation compares results against baseline through VWBA/WQBA indicators, laboratory analysis, and third-party audits.
This end-to-end approach secures measurable water savings of up to 8,000 m³/ha/year, yield increases from 30 to 50 t/ha, reductions in nitrate concentrations and conductivity in drainage water, and lower indirect emissions by reducing pumping hours. It embeds continuous monitoring, digital traceability, and a governance model involving producers, technology providers, and basin authorities. The result is a robust, auditable system that guarantees traceability, accountability, and long-term sustainability, while positioning the project as a replicable model of climate-resilient and Water Positive agriculture.
