Otago farmers have their say in land and water regulations

A huge response to the Otago Regional Council’s draft Land and Water Regional Plan shows farmers are keen to have their say in the proposed changes.

The plan, which has been in the works since 2019, is intended to protect the region’s waterways by introducing a raft of rules and regulations region-wide, with some specific to areas of Otago, that would cause changes for the area’s farmers.

Following 12 public drop-in sessions held throughout Otago and two online meetings attracting more than 370 people, the online public responses to the Land and Water closed at midnight on Monday.

They received more than 550 responses to date, with more yet to be counted.

ORC’s general manager policy and science Anita Dawe said there were four main themes within the submissions, including the proposed changes around setbacks from waterbodies for various farming activities, the suggested limits on the number of cows per hectare as a measure of intensity, the suggested restrictions on the amount of nitrogen fertiliser used per hectare, and feedback around minimum flows for the Manuherekia River.

Otago Regional Council's latest draft of the Land and Water Regional plan has received plenty of farmer feedback. Photo/file

Federated Farmers Otago president Luke Kane said the number of submissions was a pretty good sign of engagement and highlighted how far the original plan was from practical achievability.

He said there was a general feeling in the Otago farming community that the policy had got ahead of the science, and it was not clear what was trying to be solved.

“You’ve got the two and a half cows to the hectare stocking rate cap and 100kg of nitrogen, which is significantly stronger than the national policy statement, but yet unclear what those set points are trying to achieve.”

“It’s very, very difficult to offer up an alternative when you can’t see what’s trying to be solved.”

Kane said it appeared council had “picked some easy, round numbers, and thrown them on a sheet of paper to see what the response was like”.

“I think the message has been delivered relatively loud and clear that this [the draft Land and Water Regional Plan] would just decimate certain industries.

“The workloads that people are under at the moment, but have managed to read this and put a submission forward, I think that’s pretty incredible.”

He acknowledged the regional authority was working with the rules and legislation received from the previous government, and up until those rules were changed, ORC was “stuck between a rock and a hard place”.

Dawe said there was still a considerable amount of work to be done, but ORC staff were still to present the plan for approval in June next year.

While there was not yet a detailed breakdown, early indications showed the council had received feedback on most of the rules, she said.

“That gives us a good opportunity to reflect on the draft, and where practical, make changes for clarity and improved environmental outcomes.

The plan is set to continue through the drafting stages, with environmental science & policy workshops later this month where ORC staff will summarise the feedback across topics and seek policy direction from the committee.

The council will be asked in June next year to approve the plan for notification.