Drought is one of the most stressful events a farmer can face, Otago Rural Support Trust co-ordinator David Mellish says.
Primary Industries minister Nathan Guy yesterday announced a medium-scale adverse event in response to the extreme dry conditions facing farmers and growers along the east coast of the South Island, including Otago - but not South Otago - and parts of Canterbury and Marlborough.
It recognised the drought conditions landowners were facing as well as triggering extra funding for the Otago Rural Support Trust to support farmers, the unemployment benefit for those in extreme hardship and tax payment flexibility.
Mr Mellish said the additional funding would enable the trust to continue with its plans to be on site at agricultural and pastoral shows in Omakau, Ranfurly, Middlemarch and Wanaka as well being involved in seminars, offering ways to identify and manage stress, to be held in Omakau, Oamaru, Kurow and Roxburgh next month.
''Farming is a business like any other business - there are no handouts, but there is support, and a drought declaration is an indication of this.''
However, the announcement did not excuse farmers from taking a proactive approach to dealing with the impact of the drought before it got to crisis point.
''The big message is to plan ahead, look after your stock and look after your family. If you need help there is a lot of advice out there.''
It was important farmers looked after each other in such situations, he said.
Maniototo farmer Gerald Dowling said farmers who were organised and acted early by getting a few drafts of stock away had relieved the pressure on their properties.
The extra Government funding announced yesterday
would make a ''significant'' difference to farmers who were struggling, he said. Federated Farmers adverse events spokeswoman Katie Milne said while the announcement showed moral support for rural communities, only 147 farmers qualified for any sort of assistance during the widespread 2012-2013 North Island drought.
''And that was not to help the business of farming, it was putting food on the table.''
As it now sounded like the weather pattern would not change until the last chance for winter feed growth was past, the announcement was a ''good call'', she said.
The drought announcement did not impact on or change the Otago Regional Council's response to low river flows and irrigation restrictions.
Chief executive Peter Bodeker said while recent rainfall had eased dry conditions in some parts of the region, the ground was still dry, especially in non-irrigated areas.
As rivers had increased to just above their minimum flows, most farmers were able to take some water now.
''If we get an early autumn, it'll cool down those 26-to-36-degrees windy days,'' he said.
He hoped that would mean the council would not have to take the unusual step of stopping all water takes on the Taieri River and its tributaries, as was planned before the rain.
Otago Fish and Game chief executive Niall Watson said drought conditions in Central Otago were putting pressure on freshwater ecosystems and fisheries and with continuing dry conditions the situation was likely to worsen.
''Many smaller tributaries had already dried up, resulting in fish mortalities, mostly of juvenile trout and smaller native fish.''
Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis said the drought announcement strengthened the argument for further national investment in regional water storage which would help areas to survive climatic variations.
''The only way to prevent communities suffering drought in dry summers is through storing alpine water. New Zealand has plentiful supply which flows out to sea; we just need to get better at banking water and getting it to the needy places,'' he said.
