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Story: Water resources

Spray irrigation

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Spray irrigation

While New Zealand is often thought of as a land of abundant rainfall, the rain is not evenly spread. Much of the eastern South Island is in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps, so if farmers want to increase production they must irrigate their land. These fields being irrigated are near Ōmarama, in the Mackenzie Basin.

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How to cite this page

Mike Scarsbrook and Charles Pearson, Water resources – Water supply, floods and droughts, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/18148/spray-irrigation (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Mike Scarsbrook and Charles Pearson, published 1 March 2009.