Friday, March 29, 2024

Budget gets tick

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While not catching a windfall the primary sector has harvested some gains in the Coalition Government’s first Budget with science, research and forestry the biggest winners.
Rural investments are lining up well against urban opportunities, MyFarm head of investment Con Williams says. File photo
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But the $85 million committed to frontline Mycoplasma bovis response might prove to be only a deposit for a disease likely to require a truckload more to deal with it, Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew Hoggard said. 

“We still have a lot of changes that are obviously needed to Nait and systems around it so I imagine there will be even more money required yet.” 

Significant sums are likely to be required for farmer compensation.

And the additional $9.3m allocated to biosecurity will barely register. 

National’s agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy described the amount as paltry and half what National invested last year. 

The Primary Industries Ministry also got $38m more to aid a department Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor described as under increasing workload and under-funded.

But Hoggard welcomed the $5 million over four years for Overseer software investment.

Developed as a tool for nutrient budgeting it has evolved as a regulatory gauge for determining farm nutrient losses.

“It will, however, depend what that money is being spent on. I can only hope they are consulting with farmers on making the system more user-friendly. At present you almost need a degree to use it yet it has a big impact on how we are going to farm in years to come.”

The Overseer investment was also welcomed by the Fertiliser Association chief executive Dr Vera Power.

“It is important Overseer has the ability to evolve. There is a huge amount of work already under way to make it an easier tool to use. But more needs to be done to make sure it is reflecting farm systems.”

Overseer has faced criticism for its inability to always account for new mitigation methods on farms, including the use of nitrogen-absorbing plantain grasses.

That investment could dovetail well with the extra $15m over four years allocated to the Sustainable Farming Fund. 

The fund has been severely oversubscribed in recent years with last year’s round allocating funds to only 28 of the 86 projects applied for.

Ballance science and strategy manager Warwick Catto also welcomed the $15m injection.

“That fund has pretty much been flatlining for the past few years so this will be positive. 

“The cost of cleaning up catchments like Taupo and Rotorua is proving very expensive at hundreds of dollars per kg of nitrogen. The SFF is a far better way to go to help drive behaviour change based on research rather than bear the expense of trying to clean catchments up afterwards.”

Forestry has been promised $245m over 10 years under the Billion Trees programme as part of the Provincial Growth Fund. 

It includes $13.5m for native tree plantings over the next two years.

Forest Owners Association chief executive David Rhodes said the funding appeared to have a mix between indigenous and exotic plantings.  

However, he cautioned the ability of native podocarps to fix carbon is only about a third that of mature pine trees and carbon sequestration needs pines to do the heavy lifting.

ANZ rural economist Con Williams said the budget did not contain any significant surprises but the research and development tax incentives should be welcomed by the sector.

“The big challenge for the sector is to continue to feed that R&D innovation pipeline. There is also the Green Investment Fund and from a primary sector perspective we may see more investment around mitigation of greenhouse gases. If we can get  a few more tools in the toolbox, it would be good.”

But the full cost of Mycoplasma bovis remains the elephant in the room.

The spending

$15m Sustainable Farming Fund over four years

$5m Overseer over four years

$9.3m Biosecurity over four years

$85m M bovis frontline response

$38m MPI funding over two years

$245m Forestry over 10 years

$1 billion – R&D tax incentives over four years

$100m Green Investment Fund

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