Friday, March 29, 2024

O’Connor keen to work with sector

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After spending the past three years establishing a framework to transition farming to a more sustainable future, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says this next parliamentary term should see that plan put into action.
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That framework saw new rules for freshwater established with others around biodiversity protection and greenhouse gas mitigation in the pipeline.

A group of government agency leaders, along with industry people, are working on how that plan will be implemented.

“It’s absolutely essential that the industry and the Government work together. This is not the minister’s idea, it’s a collaborative development that I’m sure will be enduring and hugely beneficial,” he said.

That will create the buy-in needed for it to succeed.

“Speaking with the new generation of farmers and primary industry leaders, they are enthusiastic about getting this right,” he said.

The Primary Sector Council and its Fit for a Better World plan will also play a large part in providing advice for the plan’s implementation.

On the freshwater rules, he says they are still waiting to hear back from the Southland group on what needed to be changed.

The Government was also involved in ongoing active discussions with other regional councils and was pushing ahead with the work to create a farm plan template.

He says good progress was being made on that template and he expected details of those plans to be announced early next year.

“I want us to table a draft framework that covers most of the bases, that is practical, implementable and valuable in our international marketplace,” he said.

The timing of the transition was ideal, because in a post-covid world it had identified the primary sector’s potential.

The pandemic shocked New Zealand’s economy and the world economy, fortunately the  country and primary sector came through it in a better state than others.

“It’s positioned us well to take on future opportunities,” he said.

“Food security has been highlighted as something that needs to be better managed into the future and as a producer of food and fibre, we can play a crucial role in not only servicing our goods markets, but also expanding our capability and advisory services into the wider world.”

Despite the challenges covid had brought, it was one of the most exciting times for the primary sector in decades.

“The challenges of climate and environmental management  – we can meet those challenges and survive and thrive at a time when the world is in need of secure, safe food systems, and we are the best at that in the world,” he said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also reinforced the importance of the primary sector in the post-covid world in her speech at the recent Primary Industries NZ Summit in Wellington.

But Ardern also spoke about getting the systems right around better water protection and other animal welfare, social and environmental values, he says.

“We have to take a comprehensive approach that builds more enthusiasm for our primary sector careers, and attracts more younger people.”

O’Connor says that by 2023, he hoped there was enthusiastic buy-in and understanding for the new environmental requirements around water and soil management and biodiversity, and that we are proud to tell a story around that.

“I want to make sure that our trade structure and agreements provide opportunities for higher-value exports that we have to build and that we have systems and pathways for young New Zealanders to move into land ownership and farming, to ensure we have the innovation and vibrancy and the passion that has been a hallmark of the NZ agriculture for decades,” he said.

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