Weather: Paying a high price
OPINION: The tornado’s effects will be widely felt in this region for some time to come, writes Murray Holdaway, president Manawatu¯ /Rangit¯ıkei/ Horowhenua Federated Farmers.
From all reports, the extreme weather last week around the Levin area, caused significant damage. In what seems to have become more common, and occurring in more locations than previously, where very isolated but extreme conditions occur, often unexpectedly and cause real damage to property and as happened up north, causing the death of an elderly lady.
I hope that all who need support and assistance from the Levin episode, are getting that support, and the inconvenience and stress of dealing with such an occurrence is not weighing too heavily on you all.
For those in the rural areas, there is help available from various agencies, including Rural Support Trust, call 0800787254 if you need to.
There will be obvious damage from the event, to houses, and other property, where the value of the damage can be assessed and claimed against insurance. But there will also be less obvious and longer-term loss, which in some cases is not able to be insured against, but which is never-the-less, just as soul-destroying as the loss of property.
Reports of vegetable crops being completely destroyed, supplementary feed having the air-tight covers
On top of that, with disruptive weather patterns comes disrupted production.
punctured with hundreds of holes, and stock being injured by the hail stones, will all impact on farmers and growers who are affected.
Depending on the stage of development of the crops, it is possible that all the costs associated with the ground preparation, planting, fertilising and weed control, will be lost because of damage to the crop.
The stage of the season may mean a replacement crop is not able to be planted, so the opportunity to grow and supply that crop to the market, is lost until next spring. The resultant deficit in supply, will, all other things being equal, mean a price increase, but that will not go to the grower who has suffered the loss, but to other growers who weren’t affected.
For farmers relying on supplementary feed to fill the winter deficit, the impact of the damage to covers and probable loss of feed quantity and quality, could be replaced by purchasing other feed, but at a cost and assuming feed is available.
Again, these situations are stressful to those concerned, and add unexpected costs to their production, which the market might or might not reflect in future prices.
At the same time as these events are becoming more common, we are hearing more about the rising cost of food, and its effects on household budgets. This is partly due to the increase cost of producing food, the cost of diesel, fertiliser, labour, and machinery have all risen significantly.
On top of that, with disruptive weather patterns comes disrupted production, disrupted markets and disrupted prices at the supermarket shelves.
Please don’t blame the farmers and growers, they are just trying to make a living so they can continue to produce the next crop of food, for next month’s supply to the supermarkets. The alternative of not producing the next crop, will undoubtably mean further disruption to the supply and price, so we all end up paying even more at the supermarket.