Droughts and Demands for Irrigation water

I noticed an article in the Press yesterday saying that we need to develop more irrigation through storing alpine water. 

Having looked a little at some of the history of irrigation projects in Canterbury, I can say that the author is one in a long line of Cantabrians who have called for more irrigation during droughts.  Droughts are things we have regularly in Canterbury, and like this one, they can come on the tail of wetter years where production has been higher. They are hard on farmers and those who service the agricultural sector.  No question.

However, it seems to me that irrigation does not even out variations in income that comes with droughts and other weather events.  Even with irrigation, Canterbury farmers have to farm to the season’s conditions.  Irrigation water costs.  It requires an increase in production during BOTH dry and "wet" years to pay for it.  No matter how you look at it, droughts hurt farming pockets and they always will.  It is not easy, but farming requires farmers to manage the natural systems and take the good with the bad.  Most do.  Check out Andrew Hoggards article today.   [I must point out here that I don't agree with all he says].

Many farmers still farm successfully without irrigation.  They farm conservatively and learn to manage to the season’s conditions.  Most don’t go out of business. Some excel in this environment: Examples include Doug Avery , and Mike Brosnan .    Interestingly Mike told me he didn't want to work more than 4 days per week or to take on staff,  and he wanted to double the size of his sheep flock.  He achieved both, farming organically and moving away from grass as the main green feed and using deep rooted lucerne, salt bush, shelter and different grazing management to improve production. 

Looked at this way, droughts cause farmers to push for more irrigation but the evidence suggests tha all the irrigation in the world will not stop droughts.  Calling for more irrigation in drought years is simply a call for being able to get more irrigation to increase production in any year.  The rhythms of drought and flood will continue, regardless, along with their effect on our income as a country.  If primary production is a mainstay of our economy, this fluctuation in fortune in relation to the weather is something we just have to accept, if not now then when we have have passed the limits of our water use and degraded all our water.