Agriculture intensification: implementation guidance on Essential Freshwater policies and regulations
Guidance for councils, farmers and farm advisors on agricultural intensification.
What’s happening
From 2020 resource consents are required for:
- changes to pastoral and dairy farming land use
- an increase in irrigation or dairy support activities.
You can do some small-scale intensification as long as the amount of land use from conversion or expansion doesn’t increase by more than 10 hectares.
Why it's needed
Agricultural intensification can result in higher levels of nutrients, sediment and microbial contamination of our rivers, lakes, wetlands and groundwater.
What you may need to do
If you are looking to intensify your farming operation, read the Agricultural intensification factsheet to find out the full detail on what you can do under the regulations.
For more on environmental matters that affect farming communities see the Rural hub
The following policies and regulations have provisions which apply to agricultural agricultural intensification.