Irrigation in Canterbury

Abstract

During the past, irrigation in New Zealand has been practised to a very limited extent and until the completion of the Redcliff and Levels Schemes was confined solely to Central Otago where an area of some 68,000 acres has been reticulated. In Central Otago, irrigation is concerned with supplying all the water requirements of the crops, but in Canterbury irrigation will be used to supplement the annual rainfall. In places of very low rainfall the value of irrigation is seldom questioned as a means of producing growth, but irrigation as a supplement to an already moderate rainfall (although quite inadequate during several months of the year) is often much doubted. On such areas, namely Canterbury, a type of dry land farming to fit in with the low rainfall has evolved and today it is difficult for the farmers on such areas to visualise or approval the benefits of a supplementary moisture supply artificially supplied. In other parts of the world many examples can be quoted of the unquestionable success of irrigation supplementing an already average rainfall.