The Acton Scheme (AFIC) is located on the southern side of the Rakaia River, below State Highway One and supplies irrigation water to 58 shareholders and covers an area of about 5000 hectares.

The scheme was built in 2010 by extending the existing stock water network that had supplied the area since 1896. The construction process took 12 months. Over this time approximately 46 km of open races were reconstructed to convey water to shareholders. A large fish screen was constructed near the Rakaia River as part of the intake.

In 2016 12km of the scheme was piped using high density polyethylene pipe. This allowed several shareholders to be able to utilise pressurised water from the scheme.

The Acton scheme holds the consent to take 3 cubic metres of water from the Rakaia River, under a license from the Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation Scheme.  The BCI team operate the Acton Scheme, ensuring water delivery to AFIC shareholders within the conditions of BCI's water take and nutrient discharge consents.  The Enviro Collective Ltd team support AFIC shareholders with their environmental management and compliance.  

The majority of Acton Shareholders use the water from the scheme to supplement ground water takes, with the majority of farming systems being mixed cropping, vegetable production, dairy support and dairy.

Acton Farmers Irrigation scheme is run as a Cooperative and is governed by five Shareholder Directors with main focus of the board being to pay down debt and to deliver cost effective water to shareholders. The scheme also conveys stock water via its network for the Ashburton District Council.