Brendan Powell: Farmers must create environmental plan now

Brendan Powell

So far, more than 240 landowners in the Tukituki catchment have completed a Farm Environmental Management Plan (farm plan) ahead of the May 2018 deadline.

This is an action plan to address any losses of valuable nutrients and soil from the farm. That's the good news side of this story.

The Tukituki Plan allows farming to continue as a "permitted activity" subject to some conditions. These have been well publicised since the Plan became operative in October 2015.

The main conditions are to have a farm plan completed by May 2018, to have stock exclusion from streams by 2020 and to be operating inside of nitrogen allocation limits based on land type (land use capability units) by 2020.

The way things are looking to us at present, there might be 600-700 farm plans still to be done by May next year.

After that date, these farms will either need to get a consent or face enforcement action.

Either way they will still need to get a farm plan. It will just involve more hassle and administrative cost for farmers and the Regional Council to do it that way.

Some have asked if we will be in a position to deal with these issues. Council's compliance and consent teams are currently getting ready for May next year.

We are in a similar position to farmers. Doing nothing is not an option for HBRC. Non-enforcement of the Tukituki plan would leave us open to legal challenges similar to those currently facing Horizons Regional Council.

Some farm plan providers still have capacity to work with farmers to get them done. On average it might take several months to work through the process from the first phone call to having a completed plan, with several steps involved.

A farm visit needs to be arranged and there may be a waiting list for this. It then takes time to develop the plan with the landowner and write it up.

We're saying act today to meet that May deadline.

In the Tukituki, our advice is simple. For those wanting to avoid extra administrative costs and hassle, sign up with a provider now to complete a farm plan before 31 May 2018.