Farm Environment Plan audits
Goal
Farm Environment Plans audits show good management practices are being achieved.
Progress
Ninety per cent of FEPs audited in 2017/18 achieved a compliant A or B audit grade (682 out of 755 audits)
About this goal
On 30 June 2018, there were 2200 farms with Farm Environmental Plans in place, required to have an FEP audit.
Of those, 755 Farm Environmental Plan audits were conducted in the 2017-18 year, as per the audit programme.
Why does it matter?
Achieving on-farm good management practices is key to meeting nitrogen loss limits and mitigating other environmental risks, as well as maintaining and improving fresh water quality across Canterbury.
What's being done?
In the year ended June 2018, 637 farms in collectives and 118 individual farms were audited (755 in total).
Environment Canterbury collects the grade for each audit (see below "What we found") but does not receive each audit report.
By 2020: all farms that are part of a collective or an irrigation scheme will have been audited at least once to assess whether they are achieving the good management practice requirements in their Farm Environment Plan.
By 2024: all individual farms will have obtained land use consents to farm and will have had at least one audit of their Farm Environment Plan.
Farms receiving an A grade for their FEP audit will be on a three-year audit cycle; farms that receive a B, C or D grade will receive more frequent compliance follow-ups (see below "What do the FEP Audit grades mean").
What we found
What do the FEP Audit grades mean
Find out more
Find out about FEP audit requirements at canterburywater.farm/fep/fep-audits.
Read the latest Farming to limits and Farm Environment Plan audits report.
Visit canterburywater.farm for more information for farmers.
Find out how ratepayer funding supports this work with our Rates Tool.