Faced with the pea weevil problem the council and Feds got together to develop a strategy for alternative cropping to peas.
The Foundation for Arable Research became involved as did the Carterton and South Wairarapa District Councils and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
They’ll be considering both dryland and irrigated crops, which is great.
It seems the bold initiative has been totally ignored by irrigation’s opponents because they like to berate dairying and factual arguments aren’t their style.
They irritate me.
The Wairarapa community can do with new initiatives and irrigation is certainly one.
An irrigated community has two to three times the income of one that isn’t irrigated. That has to be good for everyone.
Why waste water by letting it run out to sea, as more than 95% of our water does, when you can treble your income by harvesting some?
The Greens keep giving us dire warnings about climate change yet they iniquitously oppose measures to help communities mitigate it.
From all irrigation’s opposition groups we hear only about the perceived evils of dairying. Irrigation doesn’t have to mean dairy.
I’ve driven the length and breadth of the massive Ord irrigation scheme in the north of West Australia and haven’t seen a farm animal.
Maybe the opposition groups could gain credibility by suggesting we develop an irrigation research facility to assess different land uses under irrigation as the Wairarapa initiative is doing.
Sadly, it seems they just want to halt progress and slag the dairy industry.
Their position isn’t credible.
The Lincoln University Dairy Farm is irrigated and in the top 1% of performers and has little run-off. It is precisely measured.
Again, I’m surprised the Greens and Fish and Game haven’t been loud with their congratulations.
An irrigated community has two to three times the income of one that isn’t irrigated. That has to be good for everyone.
In Wairarapa Fish and Game has commissioned a report criticising a 2014 report on irrigation.
The problem is that the latest report, released last month from consultants BakerAg, seems to have been ignored by Fish and Game.
It is a really good, comprehensive report looking out to 2080.
It acknowledges that sustainable land use practices will be demanded and met.
It says changes in land use and culture will encourage processors and growth in boutique, value-added businesses.
It predicts that between 2040 and 2080 we would increasingly export edible crops, vegetables and fruit to a Pacific-based market.
And with vision irrigation will bring a vibrant business and social growth to Wairarapa.
What’s wrong with that?
Like Don Quixote tilting at windmills we’ve had Fish and Game commission a report from long-time irrigation schemes critic Peter Fraser.
It criticised MPI for allocating $800,000 for a feasibility study and it criticises the 55% of irrigated land predicted to go into dairying.
The BakerAg report talks about less than half that amount. Perhaps Fraser could have talked to Water Wairarapa and received some up-to-date information.
The Water Wairarapa governance group represents the entire community, not just farmers. Local government, Iwi, conservationists and recreational interests are all represented.
Water Wairarapa’s purpose is succinct: To secure a sustainable future for our region’s people, land and water by storing, managing and using water in ways that boost regional prosperity, care for the environment and support community use.
That’s a noble purpose.
Conversely Fish and Game’s could be: To support the less than 2% of the population, who kill imported fish to the exclusion of all else.
Further, to suggest the irrigation scheme is all about dairy with dubious economic benefits is facile.
As I said at the start, we have a regionally representative group working on cropping options.
Fish and Game was actually represented on the Water Wairarapa advisory group but left. You’d have to question its motives.
Fish and Game accuse Water Wairarapa of being duplicitous and desperate.
I find that cute coming from Fish and Game.
It wants Water Wairarapa suspended immediately. It wants to stop the waves like King Canute.
Fish and Game supremo Bryce Johnson huffed and puffed over the report while promising to raise the matter with Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy while quizzing the regional council.
Guy has been highly supportive of irrigation and I can’t see the regional council getting its knickers in a twist over a visit from Fish and Game.
It is the extreme arrogance of Fish and Game that astounds me.
Less than 2% of Kiwis own a fishing licence.
That would mean, using the national average, fewer than a thousand licence holders in Wairarapa.
So Fish and Game want to tie Wairarapa’s income at current levels when the entire population could be up to three times better off.
It’s fighting against the welfare of the entire community for the pleasures of an elite few.
My view is Fish and Games’ actions aren’t Quixotic, more those of the Don’s squire’s donkey.
