Thursday, 21 March 2024 09:25

Drought support for Canterbury and Otago

Written by  Staff Reporters
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay.

The Government has expanded the medium-scale adverse event classification to cover the Canterbury and Otago regions.

Last week, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced the medium-scale adverse event would cover the Marlborough, Nelson, and Tasman districts.

With today’s announcement comes further support for farmers and growers, including tax relief. It also enables the Ministry for Social Development (MSD) to consider Rural Assistance Payments.

“I have made this decision to unlock additional support for farmers and growers across the Canterbury and Otago regions as the intense dry spell persists and looks unlikely to improve in the short-term,” McClay says.

Earlier this week, McClay met with farmers in South Marlborough to see conditions on the ground first-hand.

“They told me the classification makes a difference, enabling them to access further support,” he says.

The extension unlocks up to $70,000 for Rural Support Trusts in North, Mid, and South Canterbury and Otago to facilitate community and one-on-one support for affected farmers and growers.

This is on top of $20,000 allocated to the Top of the South Rural Support Trust last month in an effort to ensure early support was available.

Rural Communities Minister Mark Patterson has also visited the affected regions recently, meeting with farmers, growers, and sector groups to discuss the challenging weather conditions.

“The dry conditions have affected some fodder crop yields and farmers have already been feeding out winter supplementary feed to livestock,” Patterson says.

He says rain over the weekend in parts of Canterbury and Otago did not deliver any significant relief to parched soils.

“The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has been working with sector groups, regional bodies, and farmers to prepare for El Niño since its arrival last year; and continue to monitor the situation to determine where additional support is needed,” Patterson says.

Farmers and growers who require support are encouraged to contact their local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

More like this

Dairy a big winner in Gulf Trade deal

The dairy industry will be a major beneficiary of a new free trade deal between NZ and the Gulf Co-operation Council whose members include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Editorial: Keep FTAs coming

OPINION: The dairy industry will  be a major beneficiary of a new free trade deal between NZ and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

Boost for hort exports

The horticulture sector is a big winner from recent free trade deals sealed with the Gulf states, says Associate Agriculture Minister Nicola Grigg.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter