Friday, March 29, 2024

To grow, to prosper

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My experience in bringing you this issue just goes to show you can sweat about something, trying to do it on your own, or you can go straight to an expert, lay bare your weakness, ask for help and have it totally nailed in a short time.
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I was searching for a suitable cover phrase for our Māori agriculture and dairy feature and much Googling later was floundering – too wordy, too convoluted, too complex.

But when I asked my husband’s friend and teaching colleague, who hails from up the coast in Ngati Porou country, he told me for te reo, less is more – the less you say, the broader the meaning can be.

It made total sense when he nailed it with a phrase from well-known Ngati Porou elder Sir Apirana Ngata – E tipu, e rea, To grow, to prosper. That is the point of the Ahuwhenua awards and the Māori focus on agriculture and the dairy industry – to grow their business for their people and their prosperity.

If I could add one thing to this, it would be “to protect” because that too is an over-riding message which comes through from the farm stories we have in this issue – to protect their land, their whenua for their next generations of mokopuna.

The finalists this year are very focused on the environment and sustaining the land and the water – not thinking in a 20-year timeframe but a 200-year one. This year’s Ahuwhenua Excellence in Māori farming winners, Rakaia Incorporation, have held on to their original mid Canterbury block, Tahu a Toa, now converted to dairy, for 120 years. That’s allowed investment in a second property and now they are ready for a third.

Ngāi Tahu are another South Island iwi who are making controlled investment into the dairy sector, converting the former Eyrewell forest into large-scale dairy units, but with considered attention to their four pillars of financial, environmental, social and cultural sustainability.

Their social sustainability includes Whenua Kura, a scholarship programme to train young Māori in agriculture and tikanga Māori using their own cultural advisors through joint ventures with Telford and Lincoln University to build capability among tangata whenua. Ash-Leigh Campbell is relishing the opportunity to train in the sector and reconnect with her whakapapa.

We track the progress of system change on the Lincoln University Demonstration Farm where improving their efficiency has lead to increased margins per hectare with fewer cows, halved nitrogen fertiliser and less bought-in supplement. Staff believe this system could be a blueprint for an efficient, resilient farm system that can keep costs to a minimum when payouts are low without jeopardising the farm’s longer-term productivity.

If you are going to the Mystery Creek Fieldays please drop in to the NZX Agri site at M28-M30, just outside the main pavilion – we would love to have a chat.

Jackie

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