North Otago farmers have revived a group which was active about a decade ago, to help address water quality issues in the province.
The North Otago Sustainable Land Management Society (Noslam), last active in the 1990s and the early 2000s, has been reactivated by about 15 farmers keen to improve water quality and promote good pastoral management practices.
Members include North Otago Irrigation Company (NOIC), company shareholders, dryland farmers and Kakanui River consent holders representing all land uses. The society's chairman, Weston cropping farmer Peter Mitchell, said the reactivated society recognised the complexity of water quality issues in North Otago and the need for collaboration with one another, and with regulators like the Otago Regional Council.
Individual farmers and NOIC have been looking critically at how the water quality standards in the council's Proposed Plan Change 6A to the Otago Water Plan could be met.
Farmers were concerned about recent reports of a deterioration in Kakanui River water quality.
''We believe that there is a lot of great work being done by farmers in North Otago to improve farming practices and water quality. We hope a mechanism like Noslam, which will capture, promote, and disseminate information on good land management practice, will play an important part in making a positive impact on water quality,'' Mr Mitchell said.
North Otago farmers wished to take a proactive leadership role in managing waterways such as the Kakanui River, to ensure a holistic approach was taken encompassing the environmental, economic and social wellbeing of the wider community.
The charter of the new group is the promotion of a healthy environment in North Otago waterways; identification of where and what the issues are; and promotion of measures to secure improvements in the environment through good practice and taking responsibility.
The group wants to create awareness not all water quality problems derive from agriculture.
Regional council chairman Stephen Woodhead said the community taking responsibility for water quality was welcomed in Otago catchments. Monitoring showed work was needed in North Otago to improve water quality, he said.
