Friday, March 29, 2024

PULPIT: Connectivity boost will help regions

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As the financial toll of containing covid-19 becomes apparent it seems every person and their dog is offering suggestions on how to keep the economy moving and assist in a recovery.  So, with my daughter’s trusty golden retriever Elsa asleep at my feet, here is my take.
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The first and most obvious impact of covid-19 has been the near collapse of our tourism industry and its unlikely recovery any time soon.  

Even when we get a vaccine it will take a while for international tourism, in particular, to get back even close to where it was. 

That alone is going to have an impact of about $17 billion less coming into our economy. That, along with fiscal fallout from other sectors that have been disrupted, is the hole we’ll need to fill.

The Government is planning to borrow billions to restart the economy. 

This isn’t free money.

It will be paid back for generations to come so we need to ensure it is invested wisely and the priority is those projects that drive earnings and sustained employment and improvements to our way of life into the long term. 

The risk we run is a big lolly scramble that might generate some short-term jobs but leave us with a bunch of bridges to nowhere. Or, worse yet, a bunch of committees that can’t even build a bridge to nowhere.

Agriculture is once again being looked at as the backbone to our economy. 

So what are the ways we can grow productivity in our sector and hope to fill some of that earnings hole? 

One of the best investments the Government could make is in connectivity. 

The Rural Broadband initiative is running behind schedule and even when it’s finished there will remain significant gaps – including in many rural areas. 

Beyond the obvious stimulus of getting more people working by being more ambitious with the work programme this would also provide improvements to on-farm productivity.

Some might query how on earth better internet connectivity and cell phone coverage make the grass and the crops grow more, make the cows milk better and the cattle and sheep put on more weight. 

The answer is farmers get the information they need more quickly, with less physical effort and the data is packaged in such a way that allows for better decision-making. 

That allows more time for doing the high-level tasks that will generate that increased performance.

There is lots of information we record on farms but, unfortunately, a lot of it is in silos – not the steel ones with the barley but digital ones.

The connectivity to be able to send that information off farm into the cloud is only one part. We also need to be able to shift that data between various programmes with simple systems that talk to each other. 

Not only will this provide better business information but it also reduces the compliance burden.

Often doing the right thing environment-wise is the easy part. The hard part can be proving you did it.

By enabling the connectivity we also enable the potential for programmes and remote devices we haven’t even dreamed of yet that can help further drive farm performance. 

That potentially leads to more innovative Kiwi businesses like Gallagher, which can export our agri tech to the world.

Improved connectivity to the regions will also help attract people to work outside our major urban areas, easing pressure on city infrastructure.  Connectivity can help overcome the physical distance for many. It also provides for enhanced educational opportunities.

Around the world there are many people who have learned they can do their jobs from a remote location.

Those people might look at the chaos this pandemic has wreaked in their countries and New Zealand might look like a pretty smart option, so long as they can communicate and do business with the world.

So, rather than first building lots of train sets to take people into the cities, why not just improve the connectivity in the regions and you might find with what we have learned to do, we don’t need to hop on the trains in the first place as much.

Who am I?
Andrew Hoggard is a Manawatu dairy farmer and vice-president of Federated Farmers.

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