Federated Farmers welcomes National's water storage scheme, says it should go further

Federated Farmers is welcoming National's announcement of a scheme to help get water storage projects built.National is promising $300 million in low-cost loans to build water storage to turn more of New Zealand's rainfall into farm profits.Federated Farmers water storage spokesperson Richard Dawkins said water storage was critical infrastructure that could help farmers become more resilient to adverse weather events and unlock economic opportunities for rural communities."The value that these systems bring, not only to the individual farmers, but the wider community and the environment as well, is hugely significant," he said.Dawkins said the funding wasn't a subsidy to fund the entire construction."This is about getting through that initial planning phase and really giving confidence to all of the stakeholders and those who could potentially invest in the system," he said.However, he said the government should also contribute towards the construction costs."Fully acknowledging that shareholders and end users would be significant financial contributors but just to get those projects off the ground some increased seed funding from the government as well would be really well received," Dawkins said.