City staff are looking to negotiate a rate structure for farmers, with an upcoming amalgamation of water providers.
In 2020, the South East Kelowna Irrigation District called SEKID, and the South Okanagan Mission Irrigation District called SOMID, will merge with the city utility.
Kelowna's Utility Services Manager Kevin Van Vliet says people within those utilities have different ways of paying right now.
"Agricultural customers in SEKID, they pay a certain amount of money per acre of land for water, up to a certain volume of water. And then beyond that, they have to pay a premium for each cubic metre of water that they use," he said.
"And customers in (SOMID), they pay a flat rate per acre of land."
On Monday, council approved plans for staff to consult with affected customers on a universal rate structure, for when the merger happens in three years.
"Water rates really need to reflect whether conservation's really important, whether predictability on how much they pay at the end of the year is more important, or is it a mix of those two?" he said.
"We're not going to be talking about how much they pay at this time, that's going to be a future discussion, when we have an idea of how the payment will be configured."
Van Vliet says one option could be similar to how domestic users pay.
"We pay a fixed amount - a certain amount per month no matter how much we use - and then we pay a certain amount based on your volume," he said.
"That's one type of system, and it reflects some stability in how much you pay per month, as well as the goal of having water conservation as a bit of an incentive - if you use a lot of water you'll pay more for it."
Engagement will take place over the next few months, with a proposed system coming in the spring.