INZ in Wellington

INZ met with Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and National Agriculture spokesperson Nathan Guy recently.

These were productive meetings. We raised our concerns about a water tax with the Minister and also updated him on a number of projects we are working on.

We spoke with Nathan Guy about National’s recently released Our Environment document which has a proposal to support rural and urban water storage infrastructure through a new fund which we support. We will be sharing our planned submission to this document in future. 

Policy update 

Submissions to the Electricity Price Review: Options paper close on Friday 22 March. 

The paper is largely focused on residential power pricing issues. INZ will be repeating a number of points raised in our previous submission in a second submission. 

Join us at IF.2019 - Irrigation Futures

IF.2019 takes place on 26-27 June in Christchurch. It’s a chance to view new local and international irrigation technology at our biggest ever trade show and discover new approaches to challenges which will help build more resilient farming systems.

Professional development and thought leadership workshops will share the latest research, technology and best practice with you so that you can deliver excellent, well informed advice to customers. Workshop places are limited so we recommend booking early!

To find out more visit our website.

Upcoming training

Regional Council Verification Training, Palmerston North 10 April - for water metering and compliance staff

2 Day Industry Verification Workshop, Lincoln 8 & 9 May - training to obtain Blue Tick Accreditation

Get into training online!

Our new online irrigation training system is now operating. The system is free for INZ members to use.

The first training module released covers irrigation scheduling and features eleven short videos explaining topics like soils, climate, plant water use, water budgets, soil moisture monitoring and scheduling.

You can read more about using the new system here. More modules are planned on different topics in the future. 

NZ schools learn about irrigation

IrrigationNZ is working with Core Education to host a virtual field trip this week which over 100 primary school classes are participating in.

The field trip is visiting Central Plains Water and a farm which is part of the scheme to see how water is used in NZ, and the role of irrigation in food production. With many regions being affected by dry conditions this a very topical subject currently. 

In the news 

Water abstraction tax concerns
New fertigation trial examines effects on nutrient losses

Town water trucked to vineyards as dry summer gets desperate

Irrigation issues in Soal charge

Ashburton irrigation schemes MHV Water, Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation, and Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation Limited have developed a great new water safety video, working with Ashburton District Council and Water Safety New Zealand.

And surfing for farmers takes off in Gisborne!