Farmers slow in paying their share instalments are putting a new $375 million irrigation scheme in the Waimate district in jeopardy.
It is also disadvantaging those who paid by the March 31 deadline.
The Hunter Downs irrigation scheme is being planned by Hunter Downs Irrigation Ltd and this week
chairman Andrew Fraser urged shareholders to pay up to enable further feasibility studies to advance the scheme.
The company had sold shares, with three instalment payments, equivalent to 24,000ha of irrigation out of a possible area of 32,000ha, which enabled it to complete a first round of investigations, including a first estimate of the cost of the scheme.
Those investigations found the scheme was economically viable.
The company then called for payment of the second instalment by March 31, to investigate land access and land use consents for pipeline construction and more accurately estimate the cost and determine who would construct the scheme.
While there had been a high proportion of support, getting payments was the hard part, as many schemes in the past had experienced, Mr Fraser said.
''We know there's a lot of financial pressure out there, but we can only bridge the gap so far.
''If there is not demonstrable grass-roots support by payments within the next week, we may not be able to build the scheme, which will be a huge blow for the region,'' Mr Fraser said.
Payments had been received for about 60% of the shares.
Some shareholders had also elected to scale back shareholdings, which put pressure on the preferred design and alignment of the scheme and might result in a smaller, more expensive distribution network, he said.
With fewer subscriptions, the scheme's design would also move away from allowing for overbuild for potential water users in the future, to focus only on those who had continued with the scheme now.
''This is a critical time, as we need to create certainty for our future. Are we building a scheme or not and if so, do we need to reduce scale?''Hunter Downs Irrigation is the only option we have to get water but we'll need a critical mass,'' Mr Fraser said.
Shareholders who had not paid up by May 1 could find their shares forfeited, not the company's preferred outcome but possibly necessary if farmers did not respond promptly, he said.
Early economic studies said the scheme could create 550 more jobs on-farm and another 1840 additional jobs in downstream businesses.
Farm household incomes would rise by $30 million a year and a further $100 million would be spent in the area.
The scheme also brought environmental benefits, including augmentation of flows to improve water quality in the nationally significant Wainono Lagoon and tributaries.
