Craig Hickson
I've watched and listened with interest as work continues on developing the Ruataniwha water storage scheme and one thing is clear - a huge opportunity will be lost for Hawke's Bay if it doesn't go ahead.
The scheme will lead to a significant increase in production from the Ruataniwha Plains, as well as land-use change and more intensive farming in the catchment.
You will see more people move into the region and positive general flow-on effects in CHB and beyond.
We're talking economic benefits to the region, direct and indirect employment opportunities throughout Hawke's Bay.
A successful region not only has large cities but strong, social, healthy, vibrant, rural towns. This scheme will bring people and activity to our towns.
I accept schemes like this are often very capital-hungry upfront but, like hydro dams, they have low ongoing running costs and the benefits for a region are long term. We need to do this for our children and our grandchildren, as our parents and grandparents did for us.
It's no secret that Hawke's Bay is a "summer dry" area of New Zealand and our summer production in many parts of the region is constrained by the moisture levels in the soil.
Any form of water conservation in winter months, giving us plenty to use in the dry months when we need it, makes good sense.
Conserving that water means we are tackling that constraint, saving the winter water that would usually just flow out to sea.
With water storage and irrigation comes reliability and with reliability comes the ability to plan ahead.
That means farmers can take comfort in the fact they have a reliable water supply and therefore new crops and farming systems will be more viable.
I believe the Ruataniwha scheme will lead to a mix of land uses with many farmers moving beyond pastoral farming.
If you look at the East Coast of the South Island for example, it used to be just lambs and now it has moved to almost entirely pivot irrigators and a lot of dairying.
While it is likely some land will be converted to dairying in the Ruataniwha Plains, I think in time it will move past that on to the higher returns of viticulture and horticulture.
At Progressive Meats we do have some capacity for additional lamb processing and there is certainly the demand from our markets, however I believe farmers will be looking ahead to more intensive farming systems that give a higher return per hectare.
All activities come with external and internal rules and constraints.
A lack of water is a constraint that water storage and irrigation addresses.
To have a successful business, farmers looking to intensify under the Ruataniwha scheme will need to manage all the rules and constraints, economic and environmental.
To say we should not look to increase production and farming in the area because some might abuse the land is nonsense.
Instead we need to simply deal with the small proportion of those who do abuse it, while giving a better opportunity to the many who will collectively lift our regional performance.
-Craig Hickson is Progressive Meats founder and 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year.
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The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz