4 October 2017
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.
Caption: 34 Farm Plan providers - the workforce to deliver 1,100 farm plans - met with regional council staff in
Waipawa. Actions from farm plans will lead to better water quality in the Tukituki catchment.
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.
ends