Food grows where water flows

 Irrigation NZ chief executive Andrew Curtis told a breakfast meeting in Wellington this morning that highlighting New Zealand's irrigation practice to urban audiences and dispelling myths is key to getting greater acceptance of water storage and irrigation throughout the country.

The breakfast was attended by over 70 politicians, industry and business representatives and NGOs.

The breakfast meeting was arranged by the national body representing irrigators and the irrigation industry, IrrigationNZ, as part of its efforts to educate New Zealanders about water storage and irrigation and to emphasise the link to food production.

Curtis says the public must understand how essential irrigation in New Zealand is and what the opportunities are.

"We have all the tools to be world leading in this industry: new environmental legislation, a productive primary industries sector and an innovative and entrepreneurial culture," he says.

"New Zealand has trebled its production of meat and wool and doubled its production of grain since large scale irrigation has been put in over the last twenty years. The significance of irrigated land which produces 20% of our primary industry export earnings from 6% of our productive land should not be underestimated," says Curtis.

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy congratulated IrrigationNZ for bringing together the capital city's key decision-makers to learn about the irrigation industry.

"Irrigation underpins a big part of the economy as water is New Zealand's strategic asset and our competitive advantage in the world," Guy told the breakfast meeting.

"Irrigation is crucial to our way of life and while we have an abundance of water, it doesn't always fall in the right place at the right time which is why irrigation and water storage are so important."

Nicky Hyslop, IrrigationNZ chairperson, described to the group the importance of irrigation in putting food on all of our tables. She described what their full 'Kiwi' breakfast might look like without irrigation – black coffee and wild salmon.

"The majority of the country's fresh fruit and vegetables are grown under irrigation, as is a substantial amount of dairy produce (>25%), the majority of grain crops that provide flour for our daily bread, as well as feed for chickens, farmed salmon and pigs," says Hyslop.

"Anti-irrigation rhetoric often develops in urban centres and we want to inform these audiences that irrigators not only help sustain quality of life for all New Zealanders, but are also making significant efforts to manage land and water sustainably at their own expense. Today we're asking urban New Zealand to recognise these efforts," she says.

To show first-hand what irrigation schemes and irrigating farmers are doing, Robyn Wells, chief executive of the North Otago Irrigation Company (NOIC) and Mark Slee of Melrose Dairy gave presentations.

The NOIC scheme, which supplies water to farmers around Oamaru, has contributed to a district-wide GDP increase of $48 million or 4.9% per annum and has added 274 full time equivalent jobs.

NOIC was the first New Zealand irrigation scheme to introduce a mandatory Farm Environment Plan (FEP) for its shareholders. The FEP ensures specific environmental issues are managed appropriately through a transparent, audited approach covering riparian planting, effluent and nutrient management, soil management and irrigation practice.

"We are in a new era and we need to drive improvements continuously," says Wells. "Today's meeting in Wellington was an opportunity to share how we are doing this."

Mark Slee, who milks 2640 cows with wife Devon in Mid Canterbury producing 1.2m kgMS annually, has made considerable investment into managing their operation's water, effluent and energy systems. Earlier this year the couple won the supreme award in the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards as well as the national award. Over the last eight years the Slee's have moved to highly targeted irrigation application through centre pivots, GPS and soil moisture monitoring and water storage.

"All farmers are under pressure to maintain production while at the same time improve land and water practices within new environmental limits and regulations," says Slee. "It is a very different landscape to the past and while it will take time to see the improvements, they are happening."