A group of scientists hope to provide farmers with some practical solutions on Thursday on how to repair their damaged land in Canterbury.
Some farmland suffered extensive damage in the earthquake, with cracks of up to a metre wide and several metres deep.
A lecturer in hazard and disaster management at Canterbury University, Dr Tom Wilson, says the group spent Wednesday in Rolleston, studying land that ruptured from the fault.
He says a heavy roller is sufficient on some parts of the fault to close the fissures enough to allow irrigators, combine harvesters and stock to cross it.
But in the central zone of the quake, near Highfield and Telegraph roads, where the most fault damage to land occurred, he says heavy rolling won't be enough.
Dr Wilson says they are testing to see if cultivating the land will work.
Initial findings will be presented to a rural recovery meeting on Thursday morning.
