Access to water remains one of the most crucial issues facing the horticulture sector.

That is according to Michelle Sands, Horticulture NZ’s policy and strategy manager, who said while the issue can create tension, she believes the sector is well placed having demonstrated it is an efficient user of water and adopts best management practices.

“Access to reliable water is so important to production but needs to be managed so waterways are healthy,” she said.

The sector body is watching closely changes the government is making to freshwater policy settings.

“It’s about efficient use of water, how it is efficiently allocated and, in some places maybe aspirations to have less water taken in the future, but how that will be designed over time.”

Sands said there also needs to be recognition that grower farms cover a small area that is intensively farmed.

In some regions, such as Pukekohe, farms straddle several councils, which have their own rules and regulations that can differ depending on the jurisdiction.

The sector is currently in the Environment Court with the Horizons Regional Council over water quality controls, and it is working with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council over issues of water extraction, minimum flows and storage conditions on the Heretaunga Plains.

She said they generally have good relationships with regional councils.

HortNZ has asked the government to establish a national direction for vegetable production to manage the sector’s effects and to standardise rules.

Sands has worked for HortNZ for six years following a career in freshwater science and environmental engineering.

That background gave her a grasp of the issues facing HortNZ.

“Within that freshwater experience, I did a lot of work on resource management mostly for resource users.”

Her role has extended to other issues facing growers, such as policies impacting regional and district planning that impact amenities such as crop protection structures and discharges to air, land and water.

The National Policy Statement on highly productive land is potentially another contentious issue, but Sands said HortNZ’s stance is not about locking this land away, but ensuring some is prioritised for primary production.

“Our focus is not about obstructing urban development by using the highly productive land provisions but using it to prioritise some areas for primary production.”

The coalition government’s policy priorities have certainly upped the workload for grower bodies like HortNZ.

Genetic engineering, the Resource Management Act, freshwater and labour are all under review, alongside industry staples food safety, biosecurity and agrichemicals.

“They are very broad ranging and wide topics.”

Sands is under no illusion that horticulture ticks the boxes of being low emitting and efficient users of water and a low environmental impact.

“We have no problem with the horticulture sector operating within environmental inputs but it’s a matter of making sure the policy settings make sense.”

The Waikato Regional Council’s upper Waiomou catchment habitat enhancement project has ended, having restored 48km of waterways along the Tukutāpere, Rapurapu and Waiomou streams.

The four-year project worked with landowners to retire and plant out riparian margins along those waterways by controlling overgrown willow and poplar trees and other pest plants, and by planting out a native corridor in their place.

The council’s Hauraki catchments unit lead, Mike Houghton, said all the landowners were really generous with their setbacks, retiring larger margins than they had been asked to.

“This uptake and dedication meant we exceeded all our project targets, but by going above and beyond, we’ve been able to increase the project’s benefits. 

“The wider margins can intercept more nutrients and run-off from reaching waterways. We’ve retired additional steep slopes, which helps to prevent soil erosion, and we’ve been able to create way more habitat and corridors for our native wildlife.”

The completion of the upper Waiomou habitat enhancement project was celebrated on September 13 with a group of landowners, stakeholders, contractors and staff visiting some of the restoration sites.

The project included partnership funding from the Ministry for the Environment, Fonterra and Ngā Whenua Rāhui, which was able to provide landowners with up to 80% of the costs of the restoration work completed.

The objectives of the project were:

• The removal and thinning of overgrown poplars and willows that were either choking streams or at risk of collapse.

• Stock exclusion by fencing to keep stock away from stream sides.

• Pest plant control, by combining mulching and herbicide treatment to control a range of pest plants.

• Re-vegetation of riparian margins with native plants to connect the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park to the Waihou River.

In total, 36 environmental programme agreements with landowners enabled 49 hectares of land to be controlled for pest plants and retired, including 48km of fencing and revegetation with 225,344 native plants.

Te Hanga North Lands Trust trustee Les Kinred said that when Waikato Regional Council first asked about retiring riparian margins on Māori-owned land, “we were mighty suspicious”.

“But the information and advice they provide, and the mapping and the planning, it all proves to be very helpful,” Kinred said, with the trust retiring 3.5ha along 1.1km of stream length and putting nearly 15,000 plants into the ground. 

Landowner Peter Bellamy said the project has been really worthwhile.

He retired 1.4km along both sides of the Waiomou Stream with setbacks of up to 20m. The area had a lot of large privet trees on his land, along with bindweed and Japanese honey suckle.

“I realise the maintenance of the plants is coming back to me but that seems easy compared to the work that has been done.

“And finding out about the native bat population, from an ecological assessment, that was a real buzz moment.”

Hauraki Coromandel catchments manager Emily O’Donnell said the initial driver of the project was to deal with a legacy issue relating to the planting of poplar and willows along streams banks.

“Many had reached maturity, were oversized and tipping over, exposing riverbanks and exacerbating erosion.

“None of this work would have possible without the vision and generosity of the landowners, who opened their farm gates and welcomed our staff and contractors.”

HortNZ is backing the government’s decision to pause the Freshwater Farm Plan rollout.

HortNZ acting chief executive Michelle Sands said they agree that the country needs a fit-for-purpose system for Freshwater Farm Plans (FWFPs) that works for horticulture and delivers on environmental outcomes.

“We believe that the optimal approach to making progress on regulatory issues is to establish a pathway to enable growers to use industry assurance programmes like New Zealand Good Agricultural Practice (NZGAP) and GLOBALG.A.P. to meet market and regulatory requirements via one integrated farm plan.”

Sands is encouraged to hear that the government is wanting to integrate existing industry assurance programmes into the FFP system. 

“We want to see recognition of programmes like the NZGAP Environment Management System, which is trusted, robust and meets the desired policy outcomes.

 “It would fit with the government’s goals and enable growers to find the right solutions for their farms and catchments.”

 HortNZ is also calling for commercial vegetable production to become a permitted activity for growers with a FWFP.

 “Over 80% of NZ-grown vegetables are grown for the domestic market,” Sands said.

 “New Zealand’s growers are committed to operating to good management practices and the industry is committed to supporting them.

 “That includes through product group research like the Sustainable Vegetable Systems programme and the HortNZ/Ministry for the Environment Growing Change project, which is supporting growers to develop their FWFP through a catchment-led approach. We encourage growers to maintain their ongoing efforts in environmental management via GAP and the EMS, supported by Growing Change, and to continue their sustainability journey despite the policy uncertainty.”

 Sands said HortNZ wants a nationally consistent approach to planning rules to provide certainty for commercial vegetable production in New Zealand.

 Regional councils have been unable to develop workable rules for vegetable production. Some regions constrain crop rotation, constrain nutrient supply to a level that reduces the amount of vegetables that can be produced and constrain expansion so growers cannot grow more vegetables to feed a growing population.

 “Regional councils are not well placed to balance national benefit with local effects. The risk is regions make unworkable rules for commercial vegetable production, without taking into account the national importance of vegetable production in securing a resilient supply of healthy fresh food for New Zealanders.”

Federated Farmers says regional councils are continuing to plough ahead with changes to freshwater rules and the Government needs to take urgent action to pull them into line. 

“It’s completely outrageous what’s going on with these regional councils,” says Colin Hurst, Federated Farmers vice-president and spokesperson for freshwater.

“We’ve got a situation where a number of councils around the country are deliberately choosing to ignore the direction of central Government and push ahead with plan changes. 

“These councils don’t seem to care in the slightest that Ministers have said the national rules are changing, or that they’ll be needlessly wasting ratepayers’ money.”

Otago Regional Council (ORC) has recently faced intense media and political scrutiny for its continued insistence on pushing through expensive new freshwater rules in October.

Environment Canterbury (ECan) has recently started a 10-day consultation on a plan change that will incorporate new rules for winter grazing and dairy land use into its regional plan. 

Environment Southland (ES) is also planning to notify a new regional plan in the coming months that will introduce onerous new freshwater rules for farmers.  

“The situation has now become so dire that we’re calling on central Government to take drastic measures and intervene,” Hurst says. 

“This is serious stuff that could completely reshape our farming landscapes and rural communities, in spite of a new national direction coming for freshwater management.” 

This week Federated Farmers has formally written to Environment Minister Penny Simmonds urging her to intervene.  

The letter calls on the Government to take urgent legislative action to prevent regional councils from notifying these plan changes until a new national direction is in place. 

“We’re asking the Government to put a ‘pause’ in place while it establishes a new framework to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA),” Hurst says. 

“The Government has been very clear it will be setting a new national direction for how freshwater should be managed by councils and rewriting resource management laws.

“By continuing to move forward with these plan changes, regional councils are essentially giving central Government the middle finger and actively undermining that work.” 

ECan intends to push go on new regulations before the National Environment Standards expire on 31 December, which Hurst says is overriding the Government’s repeal of those regulations. 

Several other regional councils have also signalled their intent to push through plan changes in the first half of 2025. 

“The sheer arrogance of these regional councils needlessly pushing ahead with these plan changes is completely unbelievable,” Hurst says.

“By turning a deaf ear and blindly changing ahead, all they’re going to end up doing is wasting time and money, and completely eroding what little trust may remain with their ratepayers.”  

Federated Farmers is concerned that councils passing new freshwater plans and regional policy statements risk locking in the previous Government’s unobtainable freshwater bottom lines and Te Mana o Te Wai requirements. 

With the RMA set to be repealed, there’s also a very real prospect that ratepayer money will be wasted developing rules that councils will need to change almost immediately, Hurst says. 

“These regional councils have made it very clear that they’re hell-bent on notifying these plan changes and won’t stop unless they’re forced to.

“This means, unless the Government intervenes, the likes of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland will ram through new rules before the national direction is reviewed.

“In practical terms, this would essentially mean that despite the Labour Government being voted out of office, its National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 will be locked in.” 

Hurst says that would be a bitter pill for farmers to swallow.

“If that were to happen, all of the new Government’s efforts to make freshwater regulations more practical, affordable or workable will make absolutely no difference behind the farm gate.

“The most frustrating thing about all of this is that farmers are really committed to improving freshwater outcomes and want to do the right thing.

“We just need an enabling regulatory framework that allows us to make those improvements in a way that doesn’t stop us from farming altogether.” 

Federated Farmers has invited Minister Simmonds to discuss the matter further.

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

The government is pausing the rollout of Freshwater Farm Plans until system improvements are finalised.

Minor amendments to the Resource Management Act will be required to enable the pause, which ministers said will allow them to make changes to make implementing the plans more cost effective and fit for purpose.

“We have heard the concerns of the sector and Cabinet has agreed to pause the rollout of freshwater farm plans while potential changes are considered,” Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard said. 

“Minor amendments to the [RMA] will enable the pause. 

“Once these amendments are made, farmers will not be required to submit a Freshwater Farm Plan for certification while changes to the Freshwater Farm Plan system are underway. 

“We want Freshwater Farm Plans to acknowledge the good work many farmers are already doing. The key thing for farmers is to make a start and keep up their efforts – their work will not be wasted,” Hoggard said.

The government will work with the sector, iwi and regional councils to simplify requirements and enable more local catchment-level solutions.

Several regions have already started implementing Freshwater Farm Plans in specific areas, including Waikato, Southland, the West Coast, Otago, and Manawatū-Whanganui. 

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the government has moved swiftly to improve resource management laws and reduce costs for farmers. 

“In May, we introduced a Bill to amend the RMA to repeal intensive winter grazing regulations and change stock exclusion regulations to remove the contentious low slope map,” McClay said. 

“We are focused on getting Wellington out of farming and freeing up farmers to do what they do best – sustainably produce the high-quality and safe food the world needs.”

The passing of the Local Water Done Well legislation last night will allow councils to begin developing their water service delivery plans, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.

“The legislation passed [yesterday] means councils can act sooner, with streamlined consultation and decision-making requirements to enable timely establishment of new water services council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to deliver the safe and reliable water infrastructure that Kiwis expect.

“It also includes the necessary provisions to finalise our Local Water Done Well deal for Watercare, which has already prevented a significant 25.8% water rate hike for Aucklanders this year.”

The immediate access to improved finance for water CCOs confirmed recently by the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) enables councils to better manage debt and make essential infrastructure investments without drastic rate hikes.

“The LGFA is the lowest cost provider of financing available to councils, and this arrangement means that water organisations can borrow up to a level equivalent to 500% of operating revenues – around twice that of existing councils – subject to water CCOs meeting prudent credit criteria.

“Given the scale and urgency of challenges facing water services for communities across the country, I expect councils to develop and implement plans for financially sustainable water services as soon as possible.

“My clear expectation is that councils will work together on joint arrangements where that makes sense to support financially sustainability, ease upward pressure on rates and provide for new infrastructure to support housing growth.”

Economic regulation of water services, along with other recently announced enduring settings for New Zealand’s water services system will be implemented through the Local Government Water Services Bill, which will be introduced in December this year and passed by mid-2025.

Changes to drinking water rules are a major win for farmers, rural communities and common sense, Federated Farmers say. 

The Government has announced that those supplying fewer than 25 people with drinking water will no longer be required to comply with onerous new rules or register the details of their water supply arrangements.

Federated Farmers local government spokesperson Sandra Faulkner says farming families across the country will be breathing a sigh of relief at the news. 

“The drinking water rules introduced by the previous Government were a massive regulatory overreach that would have made life incredibly difficult for 80,000 rural and remote households.

“The process of registering, testing and reporting on their water supply would have added significant cost, risk and hassle for absolutely no gain.”

Faulkner says the rules would have also applied to milking sheds, wool sheds or anywhere else drinking water is supplied on a farm.

“When the regulator arrives, the goodwill leaves,” she says.

“It never made any sense to try and capture thousands of very small shared domestic supplies of fewer than 25 people under these regulations.

“People would have been forced to turn the tap off, quite literally, on their staff, neighbours and communities to avoid unnecessary cost and the risk attached to penalties within these rules.”

Faulkner says rural families have been supplying safe drinking water for generations and that protections are already in place through processor quality assurance programmes.

“There is no practical or realistic way these obligations could have been enforced.

“It would have just created a situation where very small suppliers were reluctant to make use of services such as information and guidance provided by Taumata Arowai.”

Faulkner says these changes show the power of grassroots advocacy.

“Federated Farmers have been calling for these changes for a number of years and we’ve worked collaboratively with local iwi and primary processors to achieve this result.

“That detailed, comprehensive and persistent work has paid off.”

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

Reforms to the way water infrastructure and services are funded, unveiled today, will reduce pressure on council finances, says Local Government New Zealand.

The government’s Local Water Done Well programme establishes council controlled organisations (CCOs) that can borrow more than currently from the NZ Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) for investing in water services.

“LGFA has confirmed it can immediately begin lending to water CCOs that are financially supported by their parent council or councils,” said Local Government Minister Simeon Brown.

“LGFA will support leverage for water CCOs up to a level equivalent to 500% of operating revenues – around twice that of existing councils – subject to water CCOs meeting prudent credit criteria.”

Brown said by using debt to spread the costs of long-term assets, councils can invest for long-term growth and pay back their debts across the lifetime of new assets.

It also means the costs of those assets are paid for by those who use them, rather than pushing costs onto current ratepayers

Brown wants councils to work together to achieve greater efficiency and access those borrowing channels.

“Our expectation is that councils will now use this certainty and the additional borrowing capacity to reduce pressure on ratepayers while being able to invest in the critical water infrastructure NZ needs.”

Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) vice-president Campbell Barry said the news would be welcomed by councils that are financially constrained.

“Without reform, the pressure on council finances and on our essential infrastructure would continue to be completely unsustainable.” 

However, even with these changes, CCOs will still be constrained by consumers’ ability to pay for water services, he said.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly said the structure ring-fences water revenue for water services, preventing councils from siphoning those funds for other priorities or pet projects.

He said the Commerce Commission will oversee the regulations and be given regulatory tools, including mandatory information disclosure.

An LGNZ-commissioned report by Infometrics in March found that sewage systems are 30% more expensive to build and water supply system are 27% more expensive to build than they were three years ago. 

Fish population densities in Otago’s three largest lakes are relatively stable, new acoustic survey analysis suggests.

Otago Fish & Game has completed analysis for acoustic surveys of lakes Wānaka, Hāwea, and Wakatipu, which rank in the top 10 most-fished lakes in New Zealand.

“Monitoring sports fish populations in big lakes is never easy,” Fish & Game officer Jayde Couper said.

“These are big open spaces where fish can be widely dispersed.”

Couper said the latest acoustic monitoring using a highly sensitive echosounder was a test of some of the more modern technology.

Data was gathered over six days last summer and followed methods established by previous surveys led by NIWA in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2023.

It was the first survey conducted by Fish & Game staff following extensive training by expert scientists at NIWA.

“We have to find the right monitoring methods that in future will help us to manage these important fisheries,” Couper said.

The acoustic surveys supplement Otago Fish & Game’s other monitoring methods for the Southern Lakes and their tributaries, which include angler surveys, spawning surveys, drift dives, electric fishing, eDNA sampling, and analysis of competition catches.

In the latest analysis, lakes Hāwea and Wakatipu showed a small decrease from last year’s fish density count, while Lake Wānaka increased on a low count last year.

A Fish & Game boat navigated precisely determined routes at various sections of the lakes to scan for fish at between 3 and 30 metres of depth.

“While it’s not possible to survey the entirety of each lake, previous studies have shown the areas that hold the most fish, and by repeating these areas over time, we can get a picture of how lake populations are trending,” Couper said.

“Fish were found mostly near the lake bottom, similar to that observed last year. That makes sense because it’s generally where the food is.”

Fish densities were relatively stable across the five surveys covering 17 years.

According to the most recent national angling survey, the three big lakes make up more than 30% of angling in the Otago region.

“The Southern Lakes are highly popular for resident and visiting anglers,” Couper said.

“Fishing and recreation in our lakes contribute substantially to the economy, such the tourism, accommodation and retail sectors.

“Fishing is also being increasingly recognised for its benefits towards health and wellbeing.”

A follow-up survey is planned for this summer to determine annual fluctuations and to build the long-term dataset to support management of the fishery.

Restating incorrect information over and over doesn’t make it true, regardless of how passionate the people giving the misinformation might be.

The expert in this subject is Frank Frizelle, Professor of Colorectal Surgery at the University of Otago, Canterbury, and advisor to Bowel Cancer NZ.

Professor Frizelle has stated publicly that “nitrates in drinking water are highly unlikely to increase the risk of bowel cancer in New Zealand, according to the current weight of evidence”.

Bowel Cancer NZ’s website carries a similar message, explaining that approximately half of the nitrates in our bodies come from metabolising amino acids; the other half comes from our diet, particularly green vegetables.

Less than 10% of nitrates in New Zealand come from drinking water. 

Claims that people are at risk of colorectal cancer in New Zealand because of high nitrate rely on a study of citizens in Denmark published in 2018. 

That study investigated the link between nitrates and colorectal cancer in Denmark over 23 years and could not determine causation. The results did not show a dose-related response. In other words, more nitrates didn’t result in more cancer. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is alert for ‘emerging research’ on this matter, but it hasn’t changed its recommendations for safe drinking water concentrations of nitrate based on any study in recent years. 

Their 2022 update on drinking water states: “Nitrate can reach both surface water and groundwater as a consequence of agricultural activity (including excess application of inorganic nitrogenous fertilisers and manures), from wastewater disposal and from oxidation of nitrogenous waste products in human and other animal excreta, including septic tanks.

“Nitrate can also occasionally reach groundwater as a consequence of natural vegetation,” the update says. 

From this, it is clear that agriculture is not the only source of nitrate in drinking water.

The WHO report also makes it clear that babies are at risk from nitrate-related problems (such as Blue Baby Syndrome) when there is microbial contamination as well as high nitrate.

The 2022 report emphasises the importance of ensuring septic tanks are not sited near a well.

Another health concern incorrectly associated with nitrate in drinking water is preterm birth.

In New Zealand, approximately 7.4% of births are defined as preterm (less than 37 weeks of gestation), in comparison with 6.2% in Denmark, 8% in the UK, 8.7% in Australia and 10.5% in the USA.

The 2024 ‘New Zealand Maternity Clinical Indicators: background document’ recommends managing high blood pressure and tobacco to reduce likelihood of pre-term babies. Nitrate was not mentioned.

Further, in New Zealand, there is no relationship between higher-nitrate groundwater and wells and increased incidence of preterm births. Whatever region is examined, very few wells are over the World Health Guideline for nitrate in drinking water (50 mg/l) and few are above half the guideline recommendation.

All of the above information is in the public domain, but alarmist headlines still appear.

Farming leaders such as Wayne Langford have tried to point out the misinformation.

“Farmers and others in rural communities are drinking this water, so if there is a link then we want to know about it. But we will be taking our advice from health professionals, not environmental activists,” Langford has said.

He went on to say, “Greenpeace is using misinformation about a human health issue to prey on people’s fear of cancer and to push an anti-farming agenda”.

Professor Frizelle has also warned against over-interpreting the nitrate and bowel cancer research, “particularly in the environment we are in where we have a big anti-dairy lobby and water purity lobby who want to throw everything they can on the fire to say it is causing all this damage”.

But activists have cloth ears when correct information doesn’t suit their narrative.

In the nitrate case, the agenda appears to be pushing farmers to change from conventional agriculture to regenerative and organic farming or converting entirely to plant-based agriculture instead of animals.

Those wanting to see this happen believe it would be a win from all angles. However, they overlook the fact there would be a drastic fall in the production of high-quality protein for humans. 

Fewer people would be fed, so it wouldn’t be a win for those who have no food. 

The protein produced would have more environmental impact per kg of product; hence, no win for the environment. 

And thirdly, New Zealand income would be reduced, which would leave the country with a balance-of-payment problem.

Cutting through the passion and misinformation is not always easy, but Mr Langford has the answer: get your advice from experts because they are both passionate and informed.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Adjunct Professor Lincoln University, has a PhD in Soil Science, and is a director of DairyNZ, Ravensdown and Deer Industry NZ. She is also a member of the Scientific Council of the World Farmers’ Organisation. 

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

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