Silt Recovery Taskforce wins national award
Hawke’s Bay’s Silt Recovery Taskforce has received the Collaboration Excellence Award at the Association of Local Government Information Management (ALGIM) Awards.
This month's decision by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) confirming its intention to invest in the Ruataniwha water storage scheme is a good one.
HBRC's plan to invest $80 million follows the signing of water user agreements by at least 190 farmers who support the scheme.
As Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay provincial president Will Foley says: "The Ruataniwha Plains are highly vulnerable to drought and this dam will ensure a reliable water source to preserve the family farming traditions in the region."
Water storage and irrigation are the future for sustainable and prosperous agriculture in New Zealand – particularly in drought-prone regions like Hawke's Bay. And there are economic and environmental benefits for the wider community. Irrigation supported by water storage will allow growers, farmers and the whole region to ride out global market ups and downs and climatic stresses like droughts.
Despite what the doomsayers and supposed environmental lobbies claim, irrigation schemes benefit more than just irrigators; they provide economic certainty for communities and bolster their environments. Examples of this are dotted throughout the country. It simply makes good economic and community sense for local government to invest in irrigation schemes.
In its recent submission on the next steps in fresh water management, Irrigation NZ correctly pointed out this fact as follows:
'An irrigator's business is founded on certainty. This includes access to a reliable water supply for irrigation and the ability to dynamically farm their land. It is this certainty that enables investment and continuous improvement in resource use efficiency and thus good environmental performance. Without certainty they and the considerable flow-on benefits to the regional economy are severely impacted. The national economy would also be affected, given NZ has predominantly an agricultural export based economy."
IrrigationNZ chief executive Andrew Curtis says the decision sets the Hawke's Bay community up for a positive future because access to reliable water will be a game changer for the region.
The last word goes to Will Foley: "The decision is a positive step towards the region receiving true tangible benefits while maintaining the community's environmental values. It's been a long time in the making, but there's a real sense of excitement about how positive this is for the region."
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has launched an AI-powered digital assistant to help farmers using the B+LNZ Knowledge Hub to create tailored answers and resources for their farming businesses.
A tiny organism from the arid mountains of mainland Greece is facilitating a new way of growing healthier animals on farms across New Zealand.
Alliance has announced a series of capital raise roadshow event, starting on 29 September in Tuatapere, Southland.
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