Storm-hit farmers need more help, Govt told

22 December 2015

Taranaki’s farming community needs more Government assistance to recover from the widespread flooding and slips in June, the region’s civic leaders say.

The New Plymouth, Stratford and South Taranaki Mayors and the Taranaki Regional Council Chair have written to Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy requesting additional assistance for cases of extreme hardship arising from the storm.

The Taranaki Regional Council and the central Government have already delivered relief packages worth more than $1 million to farmers in the region, but Council Chairman David MacLeod says the June event was severe and caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

“The Mayors and I this month approved final allocations of the latest $416,000 in central Government relief funding for Taranaki. It was tough, because we had been faced with applications for assistance with infrastructure repairs worth $6 million,” he says.

“While a number of the applicants didn’t meet the criteria for these particular grants, the total assistance sought gives a measure of the impact of the June storm. This was an extreme event and farmers might expect to be hit by such extraordinary damage only once or twice in a lifetime of farming.”

This month’s allocation of $416,000 was shared among 75 Taranaki farms. There had been 94 applications. The assistance was targeted for repairs to uninsurable infrastructure such as fences and tracks, and pasture reinstatement.

ends

© Scoop Media