Texas A&M Extension program brings irrigation education to industry professionals

By Jenny Yu.  

The program helps contractors understand irrigation technology through science-based education and independent product evaluation. 

At the Irrigation Association’s 2025 Irrigation Show & Education Week, Karol Weyman of The Coffee Shops™ spoke with Charles Swanson, extension specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, to discuss how the university’s irrigation technology program is supporting contractors, manufacturers and industry professionals. 

Charles works within the Texas A&M University agricultural engineering department, where the program focuses on advancing irrigation knowledge through training, research and independent product evaluation. “What we do is we offer irrigation training courses as part of the landscape irrigation industry,” Charles shared.   

The program provides a wide range of educational resources designed to help contractors and agricultural professionals improve efficiency and adopt new technologies. These resources include technical publications, training programs and online learning options that are accessible to professionals across the country. 

“We have a series of fact sheets and publications for contractors and agricultural users to access. We have online courses, in-person courses,” Charles explained. “And then we also have what we call our smart irrigation laboratory, where we do independent testing and evaluation services for manufacturers and then basic product testing that we use in our short courses to help contractors.” 

At the Irrigation Show, the Texas A&M team focused on raising awareness of the many resources available to industry professionals. Swanson noted that the program offers both live and self-paced online training opportunities, along with free downloadable publications.  

“We're here just to let people know the availability of our different resources,” Charles stated. “Then, we're here meeting with manufacturers, seeing how we can offer our services to help them improve their products or do independent, third-party testing.” 

By collaborating with manufacturers, the program helps to bridge the gap between research, product development and contractor education. “We collaborate with lots of manufacturers, especially on the technology side, looking at new technologies, new products in the marketplace that we've evaluated,” Charles said. “Then, we can take the science side, the product performance, and send that back to students in our short courses.” 

As the industry continues to adopt smarter irrigation systems and water-saving technologies, programs like Texas A&M’s help ensure professionals have access to critical data and training.  

Watch the full interview to learn more about the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension program.