And those factors are a significant barrier to farmers’ ability to react quickly to rapidly changing market trends, the ministry said in a report written for it by Sapere Research Group.
They are compounded by the scope of research being hampered by groups – farmer-funded bodies were singled out for particular mention – not wanting to help research that might disrupt their sectors.
Not only that, there are big gaps in science funding and the capability around basic agriculture, marketing, economics and the need to link them to successfully produce and sell goods.
A number of sectors including pastoral and arable noted poor profitability means there is not enough money to invest in game-changing innovations while New Zealand’s risk-averse nature was identified as another barrier to progress.
And the way funding works means transformative research and innovation are less likely to be funded than traditional work.
“Providers were grappling with resource availability and capability in core areas as well as those needed for truly collaborative research.
“There were very few people with the technical scientific expertise also able to understand consumer behaviour, preferences and choices.
“Thus, looking forward, getting those capabilities in place will be a challenge, especially with and older workforce and slim pipeline,” it said.
The list of areas of capability missing or below requirements is wide-ranging.
But adding those capabilities to existing organisation will go only part way to solving the issues because a cultural change or even change of purpose is now needed.
Interviewees also noted the long-running cuts to science staff and infrastructure, mostly in Crown research institutes.
The research, that involved interviewing both NZ and overseas experts with knowledge of and experience in NZ land-based farming systems, found there are disconnects between farmers and customers and farmers and scientists.
The findings suggested possibilities to improve government funding and priority-setting.
“Many interviewees had observed that while there was a proliferation of individual, sector-led strategies, such as dairy or meat, or governmental department science strategies this is a lack of a pan-industry or national primary sector strategy.
“Interviewees felt this lack of a pan-industry strategy to be detrimental to NZ and would be best resolved by central co-ordination of a well-thought-through strategy.”
Meanwhile, Government policies on issues like zero carbon, the billion trees, water management, forests, high-class soil use and climate change could, in the absence of mitigation strategies, result fewer farms with fewer animals.
The researchers said they identified three global megatrends, which were enhanced environmental consciousness, transformational science and changing consumer views and preferences. It was clear those trends have been considered widely in NZ.
“The prima;ry implication of the trends is that a change in research areas is needed.
“Consideration of wider goals beyond the farmgate and greater focus on the customer will be required to respond to the challenges posed by the trends.
“It was clear the current capability of research organisations in land-based farm systems will need to be enhanced and augmented, with a change in focus from primarily production maximisation to production under constraints.”
Science and agriculture policies should be geared to mitigating risks and capturing opportunities.
Adaptations of farm systems are needed in the face of higher temperatures, droughts and floods.
“In the absence of such adaptation yields will be reduced and considerable year-on-year variability is forecast.
“While further productivity increases will reduce future emissions per unit of product, absolute emissions will continue to rise in the absence of significant policy change or permanent depression of commodity prices such tahat animal numbers do not increase.”
And while industry bodies have been aware of climate change for 15 years there has been much less action than awareness, they were told.
But farmers have difficulty separating fact from fiction when setting environmental sustainability goals because the evidence is nascent.
And it doesn’t matter what science or logic says if the wider community considers a practice indefensible.
“The debate has been settled: Sustainability must be first in everything that every organisation in the agri sector does every day.”
Farmers must transparently show environmental concerns are at the heart of food production rather than being a necessary and unavoidable byproduct.
It is no longer sufficient to show a picture of an animal in a lush paddock on a sunny day next to a flowing stream or to make oblique references to being clean and green to convince customers of environmental credentials.
In a world of instant and far-reaching communications where speed is important farmers will have not only to increase the quality and volume of their environmental message but also alter the channels they use.
So farmers are no longer making decisions alone. Consumers and the wider community are making the choices for them.
