Kaipara District Council irrigation trial demonstrates smart water use on high value crops

Greg Hall (Site Project Manager, Northland Inc.)

Two smart irrigation methods are being trialed in a joint venture between Kaipara District Council, Northland Inc. and local iwi, with support from local horticulture specialists, researchers and seed experts. Greg Hall (Site Project Manager, Northland Inc.) explains that the purpose of the trials is to demonstrate smart water use on high value crops, while promoting land diversification in the district.

Read about the project, including two insightful videos, here.

One trial site has an in-ground irrigation system set to water in precise amounts every two days, linked to in-ground soil sensors. The irrigation volume can be easily scaled up or down, depending on what crop is being watered. The second trial site uses a 240 metre centre-pivot irrigator to apply precision amounts of water weekly.

The purpose is to plant the whenua and see how to use water better – the opportunity to diversify land use is the biggest opportunity I see – being able to diversify into horticulture gives us the ability to grow crops for our whānau and to get to a commercial scale ... which is going to be utilised to keep this as a sustainable option … we have to be more resilient.

Snow Tane (General Manager, Operations, Te Roroa Development Group)

The initial trial has faced challenges, and solutions have been developed which will be shared with landowners wanting to try similar enterprises. For instance, it was discovered that planting a winter cover-crop will suppress weeds in preparation for next spring’s planting.

Challenges notwithstanding, the recent harvest has yielded bumper crops of watermelon, yam, kamokamo, beetroot, soybean and kaanga ma (Māori corn), with produce distributed to the Kaipara community.

The trails are being led by Kaipara District Council, with funding from the government Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, which is a recipient of Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding ($3 billion, over 3 years).

Wise Water Use and land diversification go hand in hand; congratulations to Kaipara District Council and locals for thinking ‘out of the box’ and initiating these trials. Locally, there continues to be buckets of public money spent on investigating and promoting a large water storage dam on the Makaroro river; a fool’s errand to maintain current unsustainable water practices across the Ruataniwha basin. Could our local District or Regional Councils consider investing some of that money in trials to investigate Wise Water Use?