Some farming activities and practices are currently managed under the provisions of the operative Regional Plan: Water for Otago (the Water Plan), although a small number of farming activities (e.g., silage, offal pits and farm landfills) are also managed under the Regional Plan: Waste for Otago (Waste Plan).

The Primary Production chapter of the draft Land and Water Regional Plan manages farming activities and practices that are likely to impact water quality, and the planting of forestry, and includes:

• A range of farming land uses that have the potential to cause adverse effects on water quality 
• A policy framework for freshwater farm plans 
• A policy and rule framework for managing the planting of plantation and permanent forestry 

The provisions covered in the above are proposed to be region-wide. 

Different tools for different places 

The nature of farming activity varies widely across the Otago region, as do the environments within which those activities occur. Therefore, the draft LWRP also contains a suite of tools that may be applied depending on the need for reductions of different contaminants and the timeframe within which those reductions need to be applied. These are proposed to be applied at an FMU/rohe level and the time frames are set by the environmental outcomes for each FMU. This is covered in the FMU/rohe chapters below. The FMU/rohe summaries and this summary should be read together. 

Some discharges that may be associated with farming activities (such as discharges of agrichemicals or sediment discharges from earthworks) are not managed in this chapter. They are addressed in the Earthworks and Drilling and Other Discharges chapters respectively. 

Freshwater farm plans 

A freshwater farm plan is a new tool introduced in the Government’s Essential Freshwater package, to help reduce impacts on freshwater. Freshwater farm plans are certified plans that help farmers figure out how well they are doing in keeping water clean and the land healthy. Each farmer will make a plan that says what steps they will take to identify, manage and reduce any adverse impact of farming on the freshwater environment.  

Overview and key changes 

The tables below provide a high-level comparison of the provisions of the operative Water and Waste Plans with the provisions in the Primary Production chapter of the draft LWRP and highlights the key changes from the Water and Waste Plans.