Saturday, March 30, 2024

BLOG: Our future is in good hands

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Later this week the best and brightest of our young farmers will battle it out for the 2020 title. It’s always a wonderful event and the sheer range of skill and intellect on show is astounding.
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Of course, the finalists have battled through very competitive regional qualifiers to get to this stage, which just goes to show not only the quality of the finalists but of the nationwide crop of our next generation. It gives those of us who have passed the age limit a great amount of hope the sector is in good hands. It gives us optimism.

But that optimism is tempered for many farmers at the moment despite the prices paid for our food being excellent across the board. The latest Rabobank farmer confidence survey shows a slight rise in confidence since the last quarter but the level remains low. Sheep and beef farmers and horticulturalists are feeling the best about the future but all farmers cite Government policy as their number one worry.

This week the Government is expected to release a report from the Interim Climate Change Committee that will add some meat to the bones of the Zero Carbon Bill. The agricultural sector knows it will have to reduce its emissions or pay a price but the figure isn’t yet known. Issues around what plantings can be counted to offset those emissions also need to be clarified.

Still, the big picture is clear, even if the details are not. We need to be low-emissions farmers who have the highest levels of animal welfare and improve water quality. Most are working towards those goals now and any farmers who aren’t probably don’t belong in our industry.

As the Young Farmer of the Year contest shows, it takes more than just the skill to solve the problem of a broken water main. Our best can also solve the bigger problem of where our food sits in the world and how we can secure our future.

Bryan Gibson

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