The Ministry of Agriculture has handed out nearly $1 million to eight projects in the South Island in its latest community irrigation funding round.
Five projects are for irrigation and water storage and three for local body water strategies.
One of projects, the Tarras Community Irrigation Scheme in Central Otago, has been granted $278,000 to help fund design and management costs.
The scheme aims to pump water from the Clutha River to more than 7500 hectares of farmland in the Tarras district as well as provide water for domestic and firefighting use.
The Community Irrigation Fund was set up four years ago to help rural communities meet the planning and development costs of new schemes, as well as for technical and engineering design work.
