The trouble is that reduced forest leads to reduced rain, and irrigation often reduces ground water which is replenished even slower than before. It accelerates water losses a lot faster than anyone expected.
A basic example: contours to mitigate how fast water moves in elevated terrain. Cheap and effective. Then water collected at dug basins in the bottom.
If you have cheap, constant access to water, you irrigate industrially. It’s only when droughts, lack of groundwater, climate effects, etc. kick in that the alternatives become important. But by then, you didn’t put them in place early enough.
So I think farming deserves both short- and long-term thinking. Business as usual won’t work as climate conditions get worse.
Before I respond, I have another question: Are you saying this is something we are not doing and should be?