Profitability of irrigation in Mid Canterbury

This paper was presented to the 14th Lincoln College Farmers' Conference, May 1964.In the drier areas of New Zealand irrigation is one possible method of securing the increased volume of farm production which the country reguires, but irrigation is costly. From the national viewpoint, it will only be adopted by farmers if it is profitable to them as individuals. Hence, during the Summer of 1962/3, a survey was undertaken on irrigation and dry land farming in Mid-Canterbury. The objective was to obtain information on the comparative profitability of irrigated and non-irrigated farms