PRESIDENT’S WORD
Year greeted by Covid again! As we begin 2022, the world focus, including that of New Zealand, is unfortunately once again on Covid-19, with the pandemic’s health realities, and also the impact of significant labour constraints and supply chain challenges. Barry O’Neil : HortNZ president
Omicron is here and measures are being put in place to minimise its effect on the health of our communities, businesses and the economy.
One area in which we have an opportunity to be more resilient – while providing for our sector’s future growth – is water security.
Horticulture New Zealand is working with product groups to do everything possible to mitigate these impacts. However, the unfortunate reality is that Covid-19 is already disrupting our season yet again. Cherries are currently experiencing this disruption, and no doubt apples and kiwifruit will shortly follow.
Water storage is critical for our country. However, over recent years, there has been political push-back on water storage dams due to the perception of too many cows at the end of the irrigation pipes. But thankfully, the debate is starting to get real again due to a scientific review that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has recently undertaken. Water is something New Zealand has a real competitive advantage in, yet it’s something we haven’t been leveraging and utilising, and that must change.
With New Zealand’s population so highly vaccinated, I think it’s time we accept the need to join the world again. Personally, I would sooner catch Omicron in summer when I am healthier, rather than in winter when that season’s flus and ills are also circulating. Potentially with its more infectious but less severe nature, Omicron is going to infect many if not most people in New Zealand. This is the international experience, but hopefully as a result, it will enable New Zealand to reconnect with the world and begin the process of establishing some sense of normality! But rather than depressingly speculate further about Covid-19, I want to start the year looking at a significant opportunity for New Zealand. Climate change is starting to have an exponential impact on how we grow, with some breathtaking records being broken. Last year was New Zealand’s warmest year on record, and the last decade was the world’s warmest in history. And with the incredible hot days being experienced in New Zealand this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if 2022 will be another record year. The last decade was one degree hotter than pre-industrial times. Experts say with climate change that we can expect temperatures to increase by at least 0.5 degrees every decade. That’s why we can only hope that the world will finally get serious about making a real effort to stop the inevitable outcome if little is done to reverse the trend. 2
The ORCHARDIST : FEBRUARY 2022
New Zealand has just under one million hectares irrigated, but the potential is for this figure to double or triple, if water is available. Our challenge is not having enough suitable land – we have that. Our challenge is water availability, and we can achieve that by capturing and storing water in high rainfall periods, rather than have more than 90 percent wasted and running into the oceans.
Climate change is starting to have an exponential impact on how we grow, with some breathtaking records being broken Only 8.5 percent of land used for food production is currently irrigated. Canterbury is an exception – with 60 percent of its farm area irrigated – but most other regions only have one to three percent of their productive land area irrigated. MPI’s review shows our average rainfall is dropping. For the last five years, New Zealand had three percent
