16 Apr 2014

Confidence farmers will sign up to dam water

3:06 pm on 16 April 2014

A farmer in central Hawke's Bay says locals are excited the Ruataniwha dam has been given resource consents and he's confident more farmers will now be looking to sign up to take water.

The Board of Inquiry has released a draft report that gives resource consents for the dam in Hawke's Bay, which could irrigate 25,000 hectares.

Richard Dakins runs a 350 hectare farm, which is largely arable but has a bit of trading stock and dairy grazing over the winter.

He says it's a real positive that the scheme has essentially gained resource consent and it's now time to look for farmers to sign up.

"The key thing now is to get the message out there and get people to look openly at the scheme and the positives that can come through it. And how they can work it within their farming business to create an opportunity for themselves and the flow on effects for the wider community really," Mr Dakins says.