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| I would check to make sure the landowner has permits for water withdrawals for irrigation from the source you are planning on using to irrigate. It may or may not be an easy process, especially with a drought already going on. There is no sense in buying equipment for rented property, then finding out, you can't legally use the water. I believe the property owner has to file for the permits so if they are unwilling to do the work, you are stuck with 20k in worthless (to you) equipment, no matter how hard the process is. In some places the fines for illegal withdrawal cost more the benefit you will receive.
If it was your property, I would probably say plan on rebuilding the soil to reduce the impact of droughts, because most likely it is depleted clay soil to begin with. Droughts will happen again. There is time and energy involved in that process. You would be looking at no-till, cover cropping, adding microbes, etc types of things, some of that is expensive. Some can be a bit of work, and it may not pay for itself the first year. Since it isn't your property, the landlord has more of a say in it. I know one landlord that would do it, but it is an old family farm, and they are keeping the property in the family. So the rent covers the expenses like property taxes, and they have known about soil quality issues and done other improvements for decades because it was depleted clay soil.
I might roll with crop insurance to be honest. Then try to negotiate a lower rent cost, because the average yields tanked.
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Irrigation ?
