Crops to help Lake Taupo's health

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Taupo's landowners are being asked to consider growing crops such as blueberries, lucerne and ginseng rather than farming cattle or sheep, to help improve Lake Taupo's health.

Residents have been told that significant land use changes will need to take place around Taupo over the next 15 years to stop excess nutrients from flowing into the water and causing toxic algal blooms.

At present, nitrogen and phosphorus are leaching off the land from animal effluent, fertilisers, septic tanks, stormwater runoff and other sources.

Widespread changes are expected to cost farmers millions of dollars in lost income but Kevin Snowdon, the author of a new study into alternative land use options for Taupo, believes there are numerous opportunities.

"There are lots of options to diversify and get into new businesses," he said yesterday, as his findings were unveiled to more than 200 Taupo landowners.

Commissioned by the Lake Taupo Development Company, the study was designed to identify commercially viable land use options that would not harm the lake's health. Taupo's climate, soil and topography were also taken into account, Mr Snowdon said.

The study concludes that crops such as blueberries and lucerne have the potential to be grown on a large scale around the lake, and "boutique" crops that fetch high prices overseas such as chestnuts, ginseng, saffron, wasabi and Perigord black truffles are genuine options for lifestyle blocks.

Landowners were told the local beekeeping industry could also be expanded and geothermal greenhouses - which have recently been set up to grow tomatoes and capsicums at Mokai, 28km northwest of Taupo - could be built elsewhere in the district.

"Changing land use is going to be challenging," Mr Snowdon said.

Local agencies would now have to focus on helping people to acquire the skills they would need to diversify into such areas, he said.

Yesterday's findings come just as Environment Waikato prepares to release next week its strategy on protecting Lake Taupo.

The regional council, with the Government, Taupo District Council and local Maori, wants to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the lake by 20 per cent and regulatory measures to enforce land use changes are likely to be introduced.

Mr Snowdon said his ideas were a first step, and it was up to landowners to embrace them.

"It's not the final answer. [The study] has some answers ... but the answers aren't going to be true unless people put them into practice, so there's a lot to do."

Saving Lake Taupo

* Taupo's Land Use Study has identified alternative crops and business ventures that will not harm Lake Taupo's water quality.

* Current land uses: sheep, beef, dairy and deer farms, bare land and forests of douglas fir and radiata pine.

* Future possibilities: horticulture, beekeeping, floriculture, geothermal greenhouses, organic farming, aquaculture, pharmaceutical crops, forests of cypress, redwood and eucalyptus and indigenous trees.