Finance Minister Grant Robertson has made no secret of the Government’s desire to address the debilitating and lingering impact of benefit cuts made a generation ago in the 1991 “mother of all budgets”.
To do so, over $3 billion has been allocated to core benefit increases, delivering beneficiaries on average $40 more a week.
Any hopes business and primary sector producers had for continuing injections and support after last year’s covid budget are well in the shade of this focus.
What primary sector funding there is in this budget does, however, reflect the Government’s continued commitment to helping the sector deliver on GHG reductions and environmental management.
As a result, the Government has earmarked $37 million towards a national farm planning system for farmers and growers, and $24m towards agricultural GHG mitigation research and development.
An additional $900,000 will also be spent on collecting agricultural statistics that will include GHG emissions.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says a single national farm planning framework that was easy for farmers and growers to use that integrates with business requirements was needed to meet climate change goals.
This will include a national training programme delivering more skilled farm advisors, and an accelerator fund to broaden the uptake of integrated farm plans.
Federated Farmers national president Andrew Hoggard identified the emissions and planning funding as some of the few positives in the budget for the primary sector.
“What we really need to see from this Government is an acknowledgment that the world pays us good money for the food we produce, and we need a regulatory framework that encourages and supports us to keep doing what we do,” Hoggard said.
But Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says his sector welcomed any funding that was going for farm environment planning and emissions reductions at this point.
“We are rolling the plans out now,” Chapman said.
“The emissions funding is also welcome because of the challenges our greenhouse growers have when it comes to emission reductions, particularly in the South Island where only coal can be used. It is a real issue for us, the equivalent challenge, really, to what pastoral farmers have with methane emissions from livestock.”
O’Connor says the additional emissions funding of $24m will be invaluable in boosting NZ’s R&D into technologies for gas reduction.
He says the $900,000 of funds to enable collection of GHG data were also critical.
“As the saying goes, what gets measured, gets done,” O’Connor said.
DairyNZ general manager for responsible dairy Jenny Cameron says there was little new funding to help farmers accelerate the pace or scale of the work they are doing behind the farm gate to improve environmental outcomes.
She did, however, welcome the national training programme funding for more skilled farm advisors.
“This is the sort of practical on-the-ground action that is needed,” Cameron said.
Benefits from other budget allocations may take longer to deliver a return to the primary sector, but could hold some upside in years to come.
This includes the Government’s announcement it will effectively recycle at least $3b over five years’ of ETS revenue back into emissions reduction schemes.
This has been applauded by Beyond Carbon director Lizzie Chambers. She says it could have some positive outcomes for farmers in years ahead.
“I know the finer details of this are not all there yet, but that is entirely appropriate given we are still waiting to see the final Climate Change Commission report with its recommendations,” Chambers said.
“For farmers, the recycling policy clearly leaves the door open to new funding of investments that could help agriculture further reduce its emissions in coming years.”
This could also be aided by another budget allocation, with $300m of additional funding to the NZ Green Investment Finance bank, taking total funds to $400m.
The Crown capitalised bank was established to accelerate investment to help reduce GHG emissions.
Agriculture is one of the five key sectors it invests in, and at this point no investments have been made into sector technology.
O’Connor says $22.5m of additional NAIT funding also allocated in the budget came on the back of the M bovis eradication programme.
“We have achieved increased levels of NAIT compliance in recent years. This funding will help us maintain and build on that good work,” he said.
