At the National Fieldays today O’Connor, joined by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, spoke about the focus of the $229 million Sustainable Land Use Budget package.
“Through Budget 2019 more than $35m will go towards providing practical advice, information and tools for farmers and growers to improve their operations on the ground.
“This will develop extension services to gather knowledge and then run a system of sharing it with farmers across the country as they face new challenges.
“They need to up the systems on-farm and we need to provide them with options for more profitable land use,” O’Connor said.
An important part of the package is about extension – pulling together clusters of farmers and growers in different regions to share information, insights and advice with people who understand local issues.
“We want two extension clusters under way by September with a further roll-out in the remainder of 2019 and 2020.
“We’re committed to working with the existing sector extension services and outreach work already under way.
“Over the next four years, up to 2200 farmers in targeted catchments and regions will have the direct on-the-ground support needed to lift their environmental sustainability and boost their bottom line.
“I expect officials to get on with this because they have been doing work on this for some time in the lead-up.
“We announced that we’d be developing an extension system within the Ministry for Primary Industries about nine months ago so we’ve been working on the internal capability. We’ve now got to extend that out.”
The target number of farmers, 2200, is an estimate based on at-risk catchments nationwide.
O’Connor said about $12m is committed to support Maori landowners and agribusinesses to get greater value and sustainability from their land and $5m is available to build primary industry adviser capabilities.
About $43m has been committed to upgrade relevant decision support tools.
For example, Budget 2019 funding will help to improve the accuracy of Overseer’s modelled estimates and boost the range of farm systems and conditions it models, O’Connor said.
That work sits alongside initiatives already under way such as developing integrated farm plans.
“I’ve met with the representatives from the private sector advisers to say, ‘we want to work with you’.
“The Government and industry groups are talking now about integrated farm planning.
“The private sector is already working on accreditation of farm environment plans – we want to get them to step up to have total farm integrated plans to not just meet the environmental standard but also look at different land-use options and better returns.
“We want to develop a more streamlined approach for farm planning in areas like biosecurity, animal welfare, food safety and health and safety.”
O’Connor said there are already farmers who have just got on and done it themselves.
“If these same farmers can explain to their neighbours and others how to do that, I think we’ll start to see a real roll on.
“Kiwi farmers are innovative. They just need some advice, a few tools in the toolbox and then a bit of incentive.
“I think as farmers take a step back and look at different possibilities they’ll change their systems. We’ve always done that in the past and we’ll do that in the future.”
Federated Farmers applauded the Budget’s farming investments.
“We appreciate money being spent on the ground at catchment level, because that’s where the environmental gains are being made. However, we would need to consider the details of the accompanying regulatory package,” Feds environment spokesperson Chris Allen said.
“Especially welcome is news that around $43 million has been committed to upgrade relevant decision support tools, including improving the accuracy of Overseer’s modelled estimates and boosting the range of farm systems and conditions it models.”
Allen is involved in the talks between Government and industry groups on integrated farm planning, and agreed with O’Connor and Ardern that a more streamlined approach for farm planning, incorporating the areas of biosecurity, animal welfare, food safety and health and safety, is worth striving for.
