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Agriculture and fresh water

Agricultural land use has a significant impact on water quality and the availability of fresh water, particularly in New Zealand’s lowland streams. The amount of pollution from diffuse sources, such as urban stormwater, animal effluent and fertiliser run-off, has greatly increased in the past 20 years. Most of this increase can be attributed to the intensification of agricultural land, notably the widespread conversion of low-intensity sheep farms and forestry to dairying.

To improve water quality it is essential that landowners understand the effect of their management practices on water resources, and how they can minimise these.

Managing stock levels, planting vegetation at the edge of rivers and streams (riparian planting) and other sustainable farming practices all help reduce the levels of farm effluent, excess nutrients and chemicals entering waterways.

Effective and efficient use of water through irrigation is the key to sustainable farming in many parts of the country, especially in drier areas such as the east coast of both islands. Having enough water in our rivers and streams is essential for watering stock and irrigating pasture and crops. It's also important for maintaining fish and other aquatic animals, especially during dry periods.

If landowners don’t take environmental measures the result will be rivers and beaches that are no longer suitable for swimming, and freshwater resources that aren’t suitable for livestock to drink.

The Ministry is working with industry, regional and local councils to ensure the quality and use of rural waters is well managed, and the Government is developing national policies, such as the proposed National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management, to ensure that objectives are met.

Projects and partnerships

The Ministry is working with primary producers to better manage water quality through the following projects:

The Primary Sector Water Partnership is promoting sustainable farming to primary producers. This partnership is further developing and implementing voluntary initiatives, include objectives and targets. See draft of the Primary Sector Water Partnership plan of action (PDF 1.1MB).

The Ministry for the Environment is working with regional councils to put in place fair and effective frameworks for allocating that water, through the Water Allocation Project.

Through the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord and the Dairy Environment Strategy the dairy industry has made a voluntary commitment to improve environmental performance.

The Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry has projects to promote sustainable farming. For example, the Sustainable Farming Fund (on MAF’s website) which supports rural communities to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Guidelines for managing waterways in rural areas

To help council staff and farm advisers improve their skills in managing their land, the Ministry for the Environment has produced the following guides:

Culvert and Bridge Construction: Guidelines for Farmers is a handy guide for farmers to help design culverts and bridges of adequate size.

Managing Waterways on Farms: A guide to sustainable water and riparian management in rural New Zealandprovides background information about the deterioration of streams in farmed catchments and advice on reducing the impacts of farming operations.

Microbiological Water Quality Guidelines for Marine and Freshwater Recreational Areas aims to assist councils/agencies to better inform their communities of risks related to swimming at their bathing beaches.

Further information

  • See the fresh water page for related reports, policies, regulations, projects, partnerships, guidelines and tools about fresh water.
  • For a full list of publications relating to water refer to the water publications page.

Last updated: 18 December 2008