Get ahead of future demand
Manawatu¯ farmers are being urged to consider diversifying their operations and move away from monoculture practices in order to survive.
At a recent stakeholder conference at themanawatu¯ Golf Club, Ballance Innovation leader Dr Jamie Blennerhassett described a dire situation for farms if they refused to expand.
In order to sustainably meet a growing demand on food and produce, he said farmers would need to move away from monoculture farming, a practice that also carried the risk of pests that could threaten entire species.
He described it as amatter of survival and said unless changes were made now, farmers would be unprepared for potential regulations.
Federated Farmers Manawatu¯-rangitı¯kei president Murray Holdaway said farmers were aware of the risks of monoculture farming and dealt with them every day.
He said although farmers cared about biodiversity, they also needed to run an effective business. ‘‘We pay a significant amount of levies to organisations and auditors in biosecurity ... we are contributing towards the costs to protect the industry.
‘‘And ultimately, we are the ones that are going to suffer the most economically if we get an outbreak.’’
Dr Alan Palmer, associate professor atmassey University’s School of Agriculture and Environment, agreed that increased farmland biodiversity was a good idea, but pointed out the pitfalls. He said monoculture farms, especially vegetable crops, were popular because of the efficiency of harvesting and the financial benefits.
It also kept costs low.
‘‘If you grow amultitude of crops, you need amultitude of equipment and amultitude of sets of expertise to grow those crops.’’
Doing so opened up farmers to potential side effects because the cost of cheap food production ran the risk of pest invasion – which could mean losing an entire crop or herd. ‘‘If you ruin your environment, you don’t have sustainability anyway for the business, so [farmers] need to take a longer term view. You’ve got to look far into the future, not just a couple of years.’’
Although the cost of diversifying crops and animals could be high, Blennerhassett pointed out that consumer demand for sustainable farming was on the rise, and peoplewould pay for products produced with people and planet in mind.
In 2019 the Government proposed a National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity. The policy is yet to be passed, but set out objectives to identify, protect, manage and restore indigenous biodiversity.
Holdaway said some people were suggesting that it’s going to have a bigger impact on farming than the fresh water and carbon regulations.
He said farmers needed to be engaged in the regulatory process from the beginning, instead of being asked for their thoughts after policy had been drafted.
Minister for Agriculture Damien O’connor did not respond to questions about whether food diversity was being considered by the Government, but said he was ‘‘focused on ensuring farmers get the benefits from increased knowledge about good on-farm practice – including improving environmental benefits alongside higher premiums for theirwork’’.