The effect of irrigation on farm organisation, operation and financial returns from a selection of farms in the Ashburton-Lyndhurst irrigation scheme

Abstract

The aim of this investigation is to find how irrigation has affected farmers in respect to net income, farm practises and yields and returns from the various farm enterprises associated with farming in the area covered by the Ashburton-Lyndhurst irrigation scheme. From this it is hoped to show in what ways irrigation may benefit other farmers by increasing net income. There has been much controversy over the economies of the scheme and irrigation in general in Canterbury, both to the farmer and the community and it is hoped that this survey, limited as it is, may, in a small way, give some conclusive evidence on the matter in the former case especially.