Farm Plan focus in Central Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Regional Council’s land advisors met with 34 Farm Plan providers in Waipawa on Wednesday to tackle the challenge of delivering 1,100 Central HB farm plans by 31 May 2018.

The regional council’s Tukituki Plan will lead to better water quality in the Tukituki catchment through land use practice improvements and landowner-led innovation. At this stage, the pressure is on individual landowners to commit to work with Farm Plan providers. The Farm Plans are not a solution in themselves, but spell out the adjustments to make to reduce individual farm impacts on the environment.

“From our perspective, the priority setting and on-farm actions that come out of a farm plan will see water quality improve downstream from farming activities,” says HBRC’s catchment management team leader Brendan Powell.

The regional council relies increasingly on approved Farm Plan providers to deliver plans that are a solid foundation for next steps.

“The farmer-provider relationships are hugely important,” says Mr Powell.

“We’re setting up an approval, accreditation and auditing process for providers so that farmers dealing with an approved provider can be confident in the product they receive,” adds Mr Powell.

5 October 2017

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