Development Of Irrigation

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30155, 12 June 1963, Page 14

Development Of Irrigation

I r Should irrigation be a national or an individual responsibility? The economic survey taken by Lincoln College experts for the Irrigation Development Association, which represents farmers in the Ashburton - Lyndhurst irrigation scheme, gives a clear indication that some form of water subsidy is required at this stage of development if the increased production potential of irrigation in Canterbury is to be fully realised. The Minister of Works (Mr Goosman) is right therefore to defer fixing new water charges for farmers in the scheme until the survey—and its implications have been fully investigated. The findings are, on the face of it, irreconcilable. The value of production on heavilyirrigated farms is 50 per cent, higher than on most dry-land farms and 35 per cent higher than on highperforming dry-land farms, yet the net return does not exceed that on non-irrigated farms; and. according to the survey, “ there was even ** some indication that the “ reverse might apply The figures alone do not show the extra capital—and risk—that is required for irrigated farms nor the extra work involved. The conclusion must be that if a difference in profitability between the two types of farms is to be the criterion for fixing water charges, there is no case for an increase.

Though it does not purport to do so, the survey shows why irrigation, which has long been approved in principle in Canterbury, has lagged in practice in spite of the new policy introduced two years ago to hasten the establishment of irrigation districts and to exert some compulsion once a district is established Farmers are naturally conservative. They knew they would need to learn new techniques and to change their management schemes

to be assured that the heavy capital cost and extra work of irrigation would be recouped. In addition, the period of irrigation development has coincided with a persistent shortage of farm labour. These reasons alone would have retarded the spread of irrigation; and the survey, of an area of long experience of irrigation, shows farmers that their reluctance to switch to irrigation had some economic justification if dry-land farming is just as profitable. But the survey shows, too, that even at this stage of development spectacular increases in production are possible. They are certainly in the national interest. The Government may well conclude from its study of the survey that, if incentives are required to encourage more Canterbury farmers to undertake irrigation, it would be in the national interest to provide them.