Irrigation brings bounty

Press, 8 May 1982, Page 19

Irrigation brings bounty

Professor B. J. Ross, head of the agricultural economics and marketing department at Lincoln College, told the seminar that irrigation could lead to either intensification of production or to just drought management. In Mid-Canterbury there was a long period when the State supported irrigation schemes tended to be used by fanners as drought insurance, and this was partly because of the way they were charged for the water. In new schemes, farmers pay whether they take the water off or not. When they were paying they began to think about how they were using the water,and they then started to think about ways of intensifying production. New schemes charged for

in this different way had been much more successful in getting rapid adoption of new irrigation techniques. The benefits of intensification of production noted from an Otago irrigation area had included growing population, a younger more dynamic population as farmers who could not cope with the increased work from irrigation moved out, schools built up as the number of children rose, and all the service industries were assisted. He had been to Hawke’s Bay about February and had come away with the impression that the province was so bountiful that the orchard trees were laden down with produce. Canterbury could be bountiful like Hawke’s Bay —given irrigation, he said, adding there was more than one type of farming which could give more intensive farming than the present pattern. Already dairy farmers in the Bay of Plenty were selling up in the Bay of Plenty and moving to the South Island, including Canterbury, as successful horticulture pushed up land prices in their home areas. “We are becoming a dairying province. almost by stealth." Horticulture, using Christchurch’s international airport, supplying the Northern Hemisphere with highprice, off-season produce,

was another way of intensifying production. The country’s high internal transport costs meant that farmers near an international airport had an advantage, and already there were growers in Canterbury airfreighting cut flowers to Australian cities, and catering specifically for St Valentine’s Day gift demand'’ in California. But even with present farming, irrigation would lead to intensification, with jobs in handling water control equipment, and looking after more stock and bigger crops. If there was to be a highincome intensive industry, mechanical harvesting of all sorts of crops would be needed. Research was already being done at Lincoln College on mechanical harvesting of apples, said the professor. The contour of the Canterbury Plains was ideal both for irrigation and for harvesting and picking machinery. One of the problems might be that the region’s rainfall was a little high to get very precise watering of plants. “In California they get very upset if it rains, because that interferes with the irrigation programme,” said Professor Ross. “When you are irrigating without rain you can be absolutely certain about how milch water each

plant is getting. “We are getting towards that sort of thing in New Zealand. In Central Otago they are looking for a place where they can grow apricots, when the dams take some of the existing orchards out of production. They are finding that if they expand out on to the light, stony soils, and irrigate, they can get much better control of the growth of the trees. “And that in autumn, they can stint the trees, and this almost eliminates the ageold problem of blast, which is thought to be caused by the tender shoots of the trees being' frosted. He predicted a change in the Canterbury landscape with irrigation. "Shelter will be an important complement to irrigation: there will be far more trees, hedges, and general shelter.” Benefits for cities and towns from an intensification of production, might include the greatly increased demand for goods such as chemicals and fertilisers for horticulture, packing materials, harvesting and irrigation machinery. There would also be benefits from the processing and marketing of the output. Urban dwellers would also benefit from the supply of goods and services to the extra people living in the rural areas, said Professor Ross.