He says having a ‘stable supply’ of water makes a huge difference to the ability to farm whatever type of farming operation being undertaken.
McNee believes the ‘irrigation acceleration fund’ and the ‘water infrastructure fund’ are key tools to achieving better use of water. But says even more important is the Resource Management Act reforms and the water reforms which are currently being undertaken. He says these are fundamental to enabling the primary sector to grow.
“At the moment councils are making a number of decisions around the country which potentially have significant impacts, not just on growth of our primary industries but on the existing operations of our farms. The government has signaled that it’s going to be consulting on reforms this year and those reforms are going to be really important.”
McNee says MPI and the Ministry for the Environment (MfE ) have been working jointly on the water reforms and MPI have had ten staff working on a full time basis at MfE in the so-called ‘water room’ at MfE.
“We are also putting resources into economic analysis to support the reforms and have commissioned some external work, as well as having done some ourselves. This is designed to help ministers make decisions by the middle of the year when they come to look at the reform outcomes. Ministers say before they make decisions they want to understand the real impacts that are going to be on the rural economy.”
McNee says they need to get some work done to look what the on-farm impacts of the reforms are and also what the longer term impacts are on the environment.
“So it’s a thorough economic analysis looking at the short, medium and long term impact on farming and of environmental change. The short term pieces of work we have done so far have been focused on the impacts on-farm and in particular catchments.”
McNee says MPI is already commissioning more information and working with councils to understand local issues. He says the objective is to provide them with data that will help in the decision-making process.
