Friday, March 29, 2024

Angry farmers pan ministry response

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Angry farmers took the Ministry for Primary Industries to task over the incursion of the invasive velvetleaf weed at a meeting in Ashburton on Thursday.
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“The weed is here to stay, we know that,” MPI response manager Carolyn Bleach said.

And with seed remaining viable in the soil for up to 50 years, farmers would be managing the unwanted organism for a long time yet.

Last week MPI took the fight against velvetleaf to individuals in the provinces through a series of farmer support meetings.

Farmers were forceful in their drive for answers as they challenged MPI.

“How the hell did New Zealand end up importing from Italy, the most velvetleaf infected country in the world?” Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury arable chairwoman Joanne Burke asked.

“The United Kingdom stopped importing these (Kyros and Bangor) seed lines in 2013,” she said.

Bleach said it was because NZ could not grow enough seed to meet demand.

“You bet we can, just give us a chance,” cropping farmer David Clark said.

He wanted assurance that MPI had a plan to help farmers’ onfarm management.

“There needs to be an audit of management. Farmers have not brought this on themselves but this has been lumped on farmers for 50 years or more.

“We are still in response phase and MPI needs to be driving up driveways. You have admitted you haven’t been to every property.

“You have done half a job,” Clark said.

Burke fronted MPI over confidentiality claiming it was the key issue in control.

“Farmers could do much more if we knew where it was. If we can’t get our hands on confidentiality then we are stuffed.

“We are all in this together and right now confidentiality is our biggest threat in management,” Burke said.

“How the hell did New Zealand end up importing from Italy, the most velvetleaf infected country in the world?”

Joanne Burke

Federated Farmers

“This is an invasive weed with potential to cripple NZ’s lucrative grain and seed industry,” she said.

Velvetleaf was unwittingly unleashed by seed importer DLF Seeds in pelletised fodder beet seed imported from Italy in September 2015.

MPI launched the urgent response to the weed in March and since then had been working with primary sector industry bodies and regional councils to investigate the situation, find and destroy outbreaks and develop plans to manage the weed in future.

It had been found on 252 farms in 11 regions, with 123 in mid Canterbury.

MPI believed managing velvetleaf was possible if everyone involved stayed on top of it – every year.

“We are keen that farmers understand that relatively simple measures such as good machinery hygiene, management of stock and crop planting and removing any velvetleaf plants that appear will all help control the situation,” Bleach said.

It was expected significantly more velvetleaf would be found this coming season.

But MPI, despite acknowledging the incursion being the largest ever geographically and the biggest response on record, said it did not plan to continue the search and destroy control.

“This has been huge for us in terms of complexity. We know it’s a serious situation and we know there will be a rise in infected farms this next season so it’s just not possible to manage through crop walks.” Bleach said.

She admitted that not all sites had been visited.

MPI was working on the possibility of training detector dogs. 

But while the ministry would continue to do research and implement processes to stop contaminated seed coming into the country, the onus of grassroots management would be with farmers, contractors, regional councils and seed merchants.

It was made clear that under the Biosecurity Act it was illegal to move or spread the weed, which could be transported on machinery and though animal hooves and dung.

“We need buy-in, we have offered these information meetings but it’s been a disappointing response,” she said.

About 60 people attended the Ashburton meeting with about 30 at south Canterbury and 20 in north Canterbury.

Further meetings were scheduled for Otago and Southland next month.

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