Moves are afoot to address nutrient limit inequalities facing dryland farmers under the Hurunui-Waiau River Regional Plan.
Farmers and community members packed into the Waikari Hall, in North Canterbury, for a meeting held by the Hurunui-Waiau zone committee dedicated to discuss concerns raised by sheep and beef farmers over what they perceived to be inequitable nutrient allocation.
With nutrient loading in the Hurunui River nearly at its limit, and in some cases above, farmers cannot increase their nutrient loading by more than 10% without a consent.
This includes dryland farmers who generally have a low input compared with those with intensive land use.
An open letter, prepared by the Dryland Farmers Group. and signed by about 350 Hurunui residents ranging from contractors and farmers to teachers and doctors, was presented to the Hurunui-Waiau Water Zone Committee.
It was also sent to Environment Canterbury (ECan) commissioners and the Hurunui District Council. The letter supported the need for a plan to manage fresh water resources of the Hurunui and Waiau catchments and commended the zone committee for the work it had done.
It also supported the collaborative process that gave the community an ongoing voice. But it said some of the outcomes of the Hurunui-Waiau Regional Plan could not be supported and asked for the support of the zone committee to review the situation.
Culverden sheep farmer James Hoban asked the zone committee to formally recognise the letter and to further investigate a proposal by Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Linda Murchison to investigate alternative solutions to nutrient allocation.
Both the letter and the proposal came about from the zone committee asking the dryland farmer's group to come up with fresh ideas on how to tackle the nutrient inequality problem.
After much insistence on the part of James Hoban, the zone committee formally recognised both. Environment Canterbury planner Andrew Parish said to implement a change in the plan, the whole process of notification, public consultation, hearing of submissions, and appeals would have to take place.
An individual could request a plan change and, if ECan accepted it, the individual body would be liable to fund it from their own pocket.
Colin Hurst and Ned Norton, from the South Canterbury Coastal Streams, gave an informative talk on how they protested to their zone committee about their nutrient allocation concerns and how they formed a Nitrogen Allocation Group (NAG), whose purpose was to work with Ecan to assess and describe the consequences of different options for allocating nitrogen load in South Canterbury Coastal Streams area.
The key features of the group included negotiating between high-emitting and low-emitting land users, support from Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ and most of all trust and respect.