Government Investment Initiatives under the Plan of Action

SUPPORTING COMMUNITY IRRIGATION SCHEMES

September 2007

Pillar 1

Description

The Community Irrigation Fund will provide grants to irrigation scheme promotors to help generate investor and community support for water storage and irrigation schemes that will benefit communities.

Background

Climate change is likely to increase drought risk in all areas of New Zealand that are currently drought-prone – typically, along the east coast of both islands. By the 2080s, severe droughts that currently occur on average around once in every 20 years could occur on average as often as once in every three to 10 years. Agricultural production in these areas can be maintained or enhanced through the development of sustainable water storage and reticulation schemes.

Compared to individual schemes, larger community water storage and irrigation schemes are more likely to:

facilitate a community focus on joint outcomes and benefits;
provide wider opportunities for producers to gain access to irrigation;
improve reliability of water supply;
use less energy per unit of water used.

Community schemes often incur high transaction costs because they involve many people over a long period. High transaction costs can hinder the efforts of irrigation schemes developers to win investor and community backing, meaning ultimately less investment and support.

Initiatives

A Community Irrigation Fund grant will be able to be used for activities that generate investor or community support for water storage and/or irrigation schemes¹. These activities might include:

supporting a project manager or public affairs coordinator;
promotional and communications work;
developing a prospectus.

Financial support for up to half of all valid costs will be available to successful applicants for up to four years.

Government investment

Initiative	2007/08 $M	2008/09 $M	2009/10 $M	2010/11 $M	2011/12 $M	2012/13 $M	2013/14 $M	2014/15 $M	2015/16 $M	Total $M
Community Irrigation Fund	0.112	0.360	0.600	0.980	1.360	1.310	1.050	0.630	0.250	6.652

Links to other government initiatives

Community irrigation schemes promote the Sustainable Water Programme of Action objective of efficient water use through support for larger or more complex schemes (for instance, storage schemes) that are more efficient in financial and water-loss terms per unit of water than smaller, less complex schemes.

Next steps

MAF will provide guidance on the fund for interested parties. More information can be obtained from:

Community Irrigation Fund
MAF Policy
Tel: 04 894 0700
E-mail: tony.wharton@maf.govt.nz

¹ For more information on the Community Irrigation Fund, visit www.maf.govt.nz.

Contact for Enquiries

Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change
MAF
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 CLIMATE (254 628)
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