Co-innovation for water management in New Zealand

With 70% of NZ’s irrigated land in Canterbury (South Island, NZ) there is considerable pressure on freshwater. A project was initiated in July 2012 in a river-based irrigation scheme in Canterbury to explore a co-innovation approach to efficient water use at farm scale. Those involved in the project – farmers, irrigation scheme operators, regulators, and researchers – are engaged in the issue and recognise a need to for better water management. Co-learning and co-innovation are central to achieving this goal, with emphasis placed on acknowledging and appreciating participants’ perceptions, knowledge, expectations, views and constraints. Researchers have been acting as translators, enabling this interaction and knowledge transfer among stakeholders. Within the irrigation scheme, farmers and the scheme operators are improving their ability to respond to information provided through changes both on-farm and at the scheme levels. Reflexive monitoring has provided a means of monitoring how, where and when system innovation is occurring.