Interest In Water For Irrigation

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 8

Interest In Water For Irrigation

An irrigation association has been formed in a district where there is as yet no formal irrigation scheme. It is in the district of the Ashburton-Hinds drainage scheme and embraces an area of 78,500 acres extending from the Ashburton to the Rangitata rivers and below the Mayfield-Hinds and Valetta irrigation schemes to the sea.

But while there is no formal irrigation scheme in the area some 60-odd farmers are active irrigators and operate equipment worth £50,000 to '£loo,ooo. They mostly have spray plants but several are flood irrigating and some are using underground water as their source of supply. As already mentioned the area is a drainage district and it contains more than 200 miles of major drains under control of the South Canterbury Catchment Board and maintained by the board. Members of the new association, while interested in irrigation, are most conscious of the importance and value of drainage in their area and are concerned that the drainage scheme should not be jeopardised in any way. Many of the drains in the district carry quantities of water considerably in excess of stock requirements but there has been a steady increase in the extent to which farmers have been drawing

on these drains for irrigation water and the stage has been reached where water has been drawn from these drains, and from the Hinds river, to a degree that, in some areas, there is an actual shortage of water for existing irrigation plants. Under existing legislation, according to the chairman of the new association, Mr J. R. Cocks, the catchment board does not have sufficient power to grant licences for use of water for irrigation, and for some years past the board, through the Catchment boards’ Association, has been pressing for improved water legislation, and some farmers in the district as long ago as 1959 made submissions along these lines to the parliamentary committee which looked into irrigation. This latter committee recommended the early preparation of a comprehensive water act. Now the Water and Soil Conservation Bill before Parliament has in view the con-

trol of water supplies and in submissions to the land and agriculture committee of Parliament the association generally commends the bill but makes some suggestions for its clarification. The initial public meeting in connexion with the formation of the association, attended by about 60 irrigators and potential irrigators, endorsed these submissions. The association is concerned that water should be licensed for irrigation to give irrigators security of tenure of water, as it is felt that this is essential to safeguard investment in irrigation equipment and to ensure efficient irrigation practice. The new association, known as the Ashburton-Hinds Irrigation Association, last week, as well as adopting a constitution, adopted a resolution calling on the interdepartmental committee on irrigation, in view of the shortage of water for irrigation, to ascertain existing supplies of water in the area and to investigate the future requirements. This has gone forward to the District Commissioner of Works, Mr D. B. Dallas. There is a body of opinion that the answer to the current shortage of water in some parts of the district would be the supplementation of the supply in the drains from the lower Valetta irrigation scheme when it is completed. If such a proposition is desirable and feasible, then it is considered that now is the time that it should be investigated in order that the planning of supply races for the

lower Valetta scheme can be integrated with the planning of the long-term future requirements of the lower area. Mr Cocks says that in the area of the association there could be about 250 farms. It is likely that about half of these would not be able to irrigate except from underground supplies and in some cases it is even doubtful if such a form of irrigation would be feasible. In some areas, he said, bores were yielding satisfactory quantities of water, but in other areas farmers had incurred considerable expenditure with little success. Quite apart from the need for ensuring that irrigators are assured of adequate supplies of water to operate their

irrigation schemes, Mr Cocks says that over-all planning now could avoid unnecessary expenditure by individuals on, say, bores, if for example a supply can be provided in drains or channels. Already a group of farmers acting together has drawn water from the Hinds river and reticulated its farms for spray irrigation in a private irrigation scheme in the Lynnford area. It is felt that this sort of development could well be integrated in an overall plan. Mr Cocks thinks that it is not likely that the whole area will be covered by some overall scheme at once. The development is more likely to be on a gradual basis with the needs of particular areas of the district being met from time to time.

Although not a lot is known about the irrigation of crops from a research point of view. Mr Cocks says that enough fanners have proved the economics of it under their own conditions to make it a sound proposition on mixed cropping and sheep farms in the area. With changes being contemplated in the control of water, it is felt that the new associatiqn might be able to play a useful part in representing farmers in discussions with the controlling authority as problems arise. On the committee of the association, apart from Mr Cocks, are Messrs J. Brand, R. P. Davidson, R. J. Gray, B. Jarden, A. N. Mclntosh and S. J. Morrow.