Environment Canterbury decision provides consenting pathway for vegetables

Rachel McClung, HortNZ environmental policy advisor

First published in the May 2022 issues of The Orchardist and NZGrower.

The Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) has significant limitations for commercial vegetable production.

With ever-increasing pressure on land available for horticulture, rotating soils to avoid soil-borne disease becomes harder and harder. In Canterbury, adding to this was an operative region-wide nutrient management framework within the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) with significant limitations for commercial vegetable production.

While other farming activities were securing farming land use consents, vegetable growers found themselves unable to do so. Farming land use consent could only be issued for specified land parcels. However, commercial vegetable production needs flexibility to access fresh land to enable soil rotation. This tends to be achieved through rotation across both owned and leased land, and leasing could be either long or short term.

Therefore, part of the problem was that a land use consent is attached to specific land parcels, but also the CLWRP assigns nitrogen loss rates to land, not to the activity. This means that when looking for fresh land there was the associated challenge to find land with a sufficient nitrogen limit to accommodate commercial vegetable production. Both factors were problematic for vegetable growers when rotating and presented significant complications for consenting.

In addition, there were limitations in the ability of OVERSEER® to reliably estimate nitrogen losses from commercial vegetable growing, complexities and costs associated with the preparation of nutrient budgets.

Furthermore, the complex framework of the CLWRP means that no single set of provisions applies to commercial vegetable production due to a range of sub-region-specific rules, as many growers grow vegetables in and across multiple sub-regions.

All this has added to the complexity of obtaining a farming land use consent for commercial vegetable production. For these reasons, Horticulture New Zealand approached Environment Canterbury (ECan) to address the issue in late 2017.

Through discussions with ECan staff, it was determined that a plan change was needed to ensure a consenting pathway for commercial vegetable production. As a first step and to assist ECan in better understanding the issue, a series of grower workshops was held in 2018.

One key outcome from the workshops was the clear understanding that a land use consent was not going to work for commercial vegetable growing, as any consent needed to allow a degree of flexibility for location. It was established that a discharge permit would be more enabling for commercial vegetable production across Canterbury.

In July 2019, ECan notified Plan Change 7 (PC7) to the CLWRP. Part A of PC7 proposed a new consenting framework for commercial vegetable production.

HortNZ lodged a submission in general support but seeking amendments to ensure the new rules would be workable for our industry into the future. The process was then delayed due to Covid-19, however HortNZ then presented at the hearing in December 2020. Five growers attended with the HortNZ team to present case studies to the hearing panel to demonstrate key points. These included Scottfresh, Hewson Farms (NZ) Ltd, Lovett Family Farms Ltd, Pye Produce Ltd and Peelview Orchard.

The decision was released by ECan in November 2021. Overall, we are pleased with the decision, as the Canterbury Land and Water Plan will now recognise the importance of commercial vegetable production (CVP) and provide a workable consent pathway.

The following are areas of the decision that have moved from the notified version of the plan change in response to the HortNZ submissions and hearing attendance:

• Recognition within the policy of the importance of CVP for domestic food supply.
• Three consenting pathways open to CVP – irrigation scheme permit, farming land use consent or CVP permit.
• Exclusion of a nutrient budget in the body of the rule (thereby not triggering a non-complying activity status if not provided).
• A move in the permitted activity status threshold from 0.5ha to 5ha.
• Existing CVP provided for as a restricted discretionary activity and movement not limited to a sub-catchment or nutrient allocation zone. Existing CVP can move across the region.
• New or expanded CVP provided for as a discretionary activity, subject to having a Farm Environment Plan (FEP) and meeting lawful nitrogen loss rate.
• Any CVP that does not meet the discretionary activity is a non-complying activity. The notified PC7 provisions sought a prohibited activity status, rather than non-complying. A resource consent cannot be sought for a prohibited activity. A Council legally cannot receive an application for a prohibited activity. This would have been a significant deterrent to growing in Canterbury and potentially set a precedent for Land and Water Plans across the rest of New Zealand.

No appeals were received on the provisions relating to commercial vegetable growing and they are now operative.

HortNZ will work with ECan consent planners in the early stages of implementing the new provisions to better understand the information requirements for an application and help ensure the new provisions are administered as best intended.

HortNZ encourages Canterbury growers to now obtain permits from ECan.