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.”
