Ag board offices closed

The Clutha Agricultural Development Board has closed its Clyde St office in Balclutha, but the group that supports the district's farmers says it is not going away.

The closure, along with reduced staff hours, would help keep the 21-year-old group active, projects manager Malcolm Deverson said.

The group is now most visible through its online presence, with a revamped website, agboardnz.co.nz, launched in May.

In April, the Otago Daily Times reported the board posted a deficit of $40,907 for the year ending December 31, 2013.

In June last year, the Clutha District Council diverted funds from the agricultural board to a new umbrella group for industry in the district, the Clutha Development Trust.

''We've been in this position for a couple of years now,'' Mr Deverson said.

''Some funding organisations closed, some reduced the amount of money they were giving out.

''If we'd have carried on the same way it would have been worse this year, because we had at least half a year of council funding last year that we wouldn't have this year.''

He said funding reserves from 2005-10 had left a ''little bit of money in the bank'', but securing new funding was a priority.

Mr Deverson is negotiating his contract with the board, but said his role would involve fewer hours.

He said the executive was taking on some of the roles he had done.

''They don't want it to disappear because we've been doing so many good things,'' Mr Deverson said.

''There are other things that we are working on. There are still things worth hanging about for.''

The 150-strong paid membership group was established as a response to the government's ending of farm subsidies and farm advisers in the late 1980s.

''Farming was thought to be not so important in the future,'' Mr Deverson said.

''And, basically, communities were left to decide ... how they were going to fend for themselves.''

-by Hamish MacLean

 

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