Climate change, emerging technologies and other disruptive factors are changing the way water is used for agriculture. This brief identifies innovations and opportunities for investing in sustainable agricultural water management in the coming decade, recognizing how such investments connect to ecosystems. The brief’s five key findings are based on a larger study on investments in agricultural water management and irrigation and drainage infrastructure made by international financing institutions (IFIs) from 2010 to 2019. The intended audience for this brief is a combination of IFIs and international development agencies, with the objective to raise awareness on what has and has not worked in agricultural water investments, and to identify some promising new approaches for the future.