Expert insights into state of agriculture

A new book outlining the value of agriculture to New Zealand will be launched at Waikato University later this week.

New Zealand Agriculture: An economics perspective looks at the state of the sector in 2014 and its value to the economy. The co-editors are Alan Emerson and Waikato University professors Jacqueline Rowarth and Frank Scrimgeour.

Their book follows the publication in 2009 of Future Food Farming, which focused on agriculture from a science perspective, Rowarth said.

Emerson wanted to create an economics version and contacted the University of Waikato for help. Rowarth and Scrimgeour then approached top people within the industry to write chapters on their speciality fields.

‘‘We had the idea about a year ago and we wrote to all of the people before Christmas and said ‘do you want to be involved’ and there was an almost unanimous yes,’’ Rowarth said.

The resulting book features 26 chapters from a wide range of contributors ranging from economists, scientists, policy analysts, students and industry group leaders. Topics covered include the value of traditional farming practices such as sheep and beef farming and dairying, border security and bio-protection, maize and other arable crops, the dairy industry and meat industry reform. The intended audience is agribusiness people and undergraduate students. It drew a ‘‘line in the sand’’ in that this was the state of the industry in 2014, Rowarth said.

‘‘It’s not ‘heavy’. It’s deliberately not written in a verbose and weighing-down manner.’’

The content is a mix of factual information and industry commentary, Rowarth said.

The book also examines future problems. ‘‘What do we need to do? And certainly in my view it’s more research that liberates people to be innovative as opposed to meeting budgets and deadlines.’’