The St. Johns River Water Management District accepts applications for its Districtwide Agricultural Cost-Share Program year-round. Through this program, the District engages farmers, growers and ranchers in the shared goals of water conservation and reduction of nutrient run-off. Award of cost-share funding is contingent on District Governing Board approval of eligible applications and funding availability.
Program Contacts
Suzanne Archer
407-620-8133
SArcher@sjrwmd.com
Contact for questions related to the Agricultural Cost-share Program or Environmental Resource Permitting and exemptions on agricultural properties
Haley Hayes
386-530-1157
HAHayes@sjrwmd.com
Contact for questions related to the Agricultural Cost-share Program or Consumptive Use Permitting
Taylor Maxwell
386-336-0320
TPMaxwel@sjrwmd.com
Contact for questions related to Consumptive Use Permitting
Mobile Irrigation Lab
Adam Boykin
386-336-0320
TPMaxwel@sjrwmd.com
The District offers Mobile Irrigation Lab services at no charge for agricultural producers. Services provided include irrigation audits, which are highly recommended prior to applying for irrigation retrofits and conversions. These audits can be beneficial in identifying issues with pressure regulation, leaks and clogs.
These services also include flow meter checks, which are required at least once every ten years to assure water use reporting accuracy.
2026 Districtwide Agriculture Cost-share
Eligible projects include those that convert to a lower quality water source, conserve water and/or reduce nutrient runoff. See “program overview” for details. Note that new production areas (previously unirrigated) are not eligible for funding, with the exception of those utilizing surface water.
Past projects have included the following:
- Irrigation retrofits
- Irrigation conversions to more efficient systems
- Conversions to surface water, including pond construction and surface water pumps
- Pump automation with telemetry
- Soil moisture probes and weather stations
- Precision land leveling equipment
- Fertigation
- Precision fertilizer application equipment
Cost-share could be up to 75 percent, not to exceed $250,000 annually, for the engineering, design, construction and implementation costs for approved projects. Projects will be selected and funded pending District Governing Board approval.
The District’s agricultural cost-share program has been funded with the goal of increasing water conservation and thereby reducing water use. Participation in the cost-share program is entirely voluntary. To ensure that expending these funds provides a return on investment in the form of an actual reduction in water use, one requirement of the cost-share agreement is that the recipient be willing to memorialize the savings produced by District funds through a modification of their consumptive use permit. If a grower chooses to fund his/her own conservation project, there would be no reduction in permitted allocation during the term of the permit in compliance with the Florida Statutes.
Cost-share recipients who are subject to any Minimum Flows and Levels for Outstanding Florida Springs with a project that will create a resource benefit that could be used to offset impacts from their existing permitted water use, will be required to designate the water resource as a receiving entity of any excess benefit up to a maximum of the percentage of funding provided by the District for the project, and to modify their consumptive use permit(s) accordingly.