We do not see this as intensification, but more as an insurance policy against terrible droughts, which like many farmers, we have endured in the past. No one likes seeing hungry, thirsty stock and failing crops.
Water will just be another tool for our business plan and will ensure a good future for our farming operation, as it will for anyone else in the rural industry providing food for our tables.
Sure, there is a cost to uptake this water, but we know it will be an added value to our business operation.
Water would also give us the flexibility to grow high-value cash crops if we see the need in the future. Water certainly will be the key to diversification for us and all other rural operators, be it stock, apples, grapes or vegetables.
Most farmers are good business people. They have to be. Those who are choosing to take water from the scheme have taken a lot time of time and made a proactive business decision to sign the documents.
There are several issues that need to be addressed as part of the decision process:
- Farmers need to consider succession planning; so they can see a clear pathway for their business to succeed now and for future generations using water. Involving family members on the farm in these plans is a prerequisite.
- Planning how to use the water is essential. Every farming family will have a different take on how to use water.
- Finance, as in all businesses, needs to be planned with care and thought.
Our operation alone will require one or potentially two new staff members once we get up and running.
Imagine, when you take into consideration how many jobs in farming alone will be created, what this will do for the local towns, schools and businesses.
There will, of course, be a positive flow-on effect for our larger cities of Hastings and Napier and the Napier Port.
As proud Central Hawke's Bay farmers, we cannot wait for this great opportunity.
It will help to produce more growth from our land base and secure a solid future, not only for our children and grandchildren but for the wider community and generations to come.
Water is the new gold.
Just talk to businesses in Central Hawke's Bay; they cannot wait.
When the rural sector is doing well, so do our towns and cities. Everyone in Hawke's Bay will benefit one way or another.
Farmers will be the ones who determine if the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme goes ahead by signing the water agreements. But we also understand that farmers are not the only ones who will benefit. It is a community scheme, which we will all enjoy the benefits of for many, many years to come.
Not long to go now. Let's embrace this amazing opportunity.
- Jeromy and Diana Greer farm with family in Central and Southern Hawke's Bay and have signed up to take water from the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
