That rural crisis might have been 30 years ago but the lessons and survival tactics learnt are still relevant today.
As I relayed in my 2014 book, When the Farm Gates Opened: The Impact of Rogernomics on Rural New Zealand, the suddenness of the ending of subsidies proved to be a taste of more to come.
Faced with a tanking economy, Lange’s reforming Finance Minister Roger Douglas wasted no time abolishing price support and development grants for farmers overnight, unleashing market-led economic reforms and restructuring that included the floating of the NZ dollar.
The impact was especially telling for sheep and beef farmers who relied more heavily on Government financial support such us guaranteed supplementary minimum prices (SMPs) for their products than dairy farmers who had relatively higher incomes.
The pain was compounded by interest rates soaring to over 20% (a mid Canterbury farmer paid 38%) and the newly-floated dollar, which experts thought would fall but which rose sharply and stayed there, further eroding export returns.
As if rural NZ wasn’t facing enough adversity, in 1988-89 drought ravaged much of the east coast of both islands, creating a tipping point for many who were only just hanging on.
Debt soared, debt servicing became impossible for some and the fear then as today was banks would sell up struggling farmers.
That didn’t happen.
Key lenders such as the then Government-owned Rural Bank learnt from the United States where earlier farm restructuring had scared-off potential buyers uncertain about where land prices were and leaving banks owning vast areas of land.
Instead NZ banks and lenders worked together to restructure farm debt with the goal of keeping farmers on the land.
Some debt was foregone but schemes such as exit grants were introduced for those struggling the most, allowing farmers to quietly leave their farm with a cash grant, some dignity and the chance to start again.
The Government funded support networks, the precursor to today’s rural support trusts.
It was estimated about 800 farmers left the industry but in reality there were more.
It could have turned quite ugly but for the support groups, the banks co-operating and the early agitation of the Provincial Support Group and its leader Collis Blake.
Debt soared, debt servicing became impossible for some and the fear then, as today, was banks would sell up struggling farmers.
His group went in to bat for struggling farmers, ensuring they received a fair deal and, in the early stages of the reforms, arranged protests to ensure the failure of the few forced sales that were held.
There were an unknown number of suicides.
Blake’s group estimated a farmer a week took their lives in 12 months.
In 1984 a common response to the adversity was to remove yourself from the outside world, to spend the day out the back of the farm fixing a fence that didn’t need mending.
In reality, that isolation compounded the worry and stress, accentuating the feeling they were the only ones enduring the misery when in reality their neighbours were similarly suffering.
The creation 30 years ago of the rural support trusts and the tireless, selfless work of dozens of extraordinary trustees such as Dame Margaret Millard, Beverley McCaw and Marion Miller saved countless lives, marriages and health issues by providing someone to listen, a source of advice and support.
Just as importantly, they organised community functions that got people off their farm so they could forget their problems and realise they were not suffering alone.
As in the 1980s, it is important not to forget the impact on rural communities of farmers not spending.
Farm staff, contractors and others dependent on servicing the agricultural industry are all hurting and suffering stress and pain.
The shape and structure of rural communities changed forever when Roger Douglas unleashed his policies and while the impact this time is unlikely to be as long or as permanent as in the 1980s, the pain from the dairy downturn will be just as severe.
• MORE: Rural support, call 0800 787 254.
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