Farmers to get improved freshwater farm plans

The Government has made significant improvements to the freshwater farm plan system through the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act which has now passed into law.

The Act allows the Minister for the Environment to approve industry organisations to certify and audit freshwater farm plans, replacing the previous requirement where regional councils provided approval.

Many smaller farms will no longer need a freshwater farm plan – the minimum farm size needing a plan for sheep and beef, arable, orcharding, and viticulture land use is now 50 hectares, up from 20ha.

This means that for around 8,000 smaller, lower risk farms the requirement for a freshwater farm plan has been scrapped completely.