Agriculture minister David Carter will visit Mid Canterbury on Friday to see pioneering farmer-driven irrigation schemes using water more efficiently. Mr Carter will look at the Rangitata Diversion Race and its plans for water storage, and at the Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation Scheme, which has piped part of its scheme to improve water use reports The Ashburton Guardian. Five farmers at the top end of the scheme have also recently installed a water turbine that generates high and low pressure water to run spray guns and centre pivots. Ashburton Lyndhurst scheme chairman John van Polanen said the turbine was commissioned this week and would slash electricity and fuel costs for those farmers who no longer had to pump water to their irrigators. The Mid Canterbury plains slope down from the foothills to the sea and the turbine generates water pressure through gravity and a five-metre drop. Mr van Polanen said the five farmers were not only reducing energy use, but better using the water because it was piped and none lost through evaporation or leakage. The turbine structure cost $570,000 and the five farmers will pay for it over 15 years. The Ashburton Lyndhurst scheme converted part of its network to pipe 12 months ago and has $60 million plans to improve the whole scheme through a combination of turbines and pipes. Though the capital cost of the improvement is high, the saving in energy costs and water is thought to be worth it. "We have the outline of what we think would be the ultimate for the scheme. We have to try and make it affordable and do-able." Piping the scheme last year had led to another 600ha being irrigated with the same water take.
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