The North Otago Irrigation Company has appointed a new chief executive, a New Zealand woman who has just spent three years with an American biofuels company.
Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company chairman Chris Dennison is encouraged by the interest shown in extending the delivery of water.
The North Otago Irrigation Company faces a dilemma as it starts the second stage of adding another 10,000ha to its scheme - and it wants the community to help solve it.
Heavy rain over the past two weeks has brought a silver lining for some North Otago farmers.
The Government will consider directly funding regional irrigation schemes, but only after all other commercial solutions have been exhausted, Minister of Agriculture David Carter said in Cromwell yesterday.
A further resource consent to take and use water for irrigation within the lower Waitaki catchment has been granted by an Environment Canterbury (ECan) panel of commissioners.
The granting of a water resource consent for the Hunter Downs irrigation scheme in South Canterbury would be a "welcome boost" to farmers during the current dry period, South Canterbury Irrigation Trust chairman Don McFarlane said yesterday.