FarmsOnLine
Enhancing New Zealand’s information on the rural sector
The need for accurate property information
There is a strong need for the government and emergency response agencies to have access to accurate information on rural properties in New Zealand.
For one, agencies such as MAF Biosecurity New Zealand need this information to be able to respond rapidly to identify affected properties and trace stock in biosecurity or other emergencies. This protects stock, crops, farmers’ livelihoods and the New Zealand economy.
In addition, access to readily-available, reliable property information will:
- Give New Zealand’s trading partners increased confidence in the country’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks. This reduces the likelihood or scope of trade restrictions that could cost New Zealand millions of dollars a day.
- Help government agencies to develop targeted and effective rural policies and programmes and to plan and undertake their work more effectively and efficiently.
The current situation
As it stands, property ownership and land use information currently exists among industry and government organisations but is fragmented, duplicated and not quickly accessible.
The 2005 Waiheke Island foot-and-mouth disease hoax was a wake-up call. Using existing information resources, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand struggled to locate and contact potentially affected properties. It took over a week in total to identify all properties on the small, 92km2 island. Better access to relevant data could have reduced this time to two days.
One of the lessons from the Waiheke Island hoax was that to effectively manage a biosecurity event it is not enough to know that a property exists; MAF Biosecurity New Zealand needs to have information on what at-risk species may be on the property and to have an owner or occupier that it can contact quickly to verify whether the property is of interest or not.
Why FarmsOnLine is the solution
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has explored a range of options for collecting and maintaining easily-accessible, high-quality and up-to-date rural property information. It has concluded that a new shared Crown resource, FarmsOnLine, will be the most cost effective, reliable and efficient option.
FarmsOnLine will overcome duplication, fragmentation and difficulty in accessing and reusing existing data. There will also be cost savings across government, as MAF and other agencies will no longer have to pay licence fees to access various data sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is FarmsOnLine?
FarmsOnLine will be a government-owned database that brings together existing information about the ownership and management of all rural properties, land use, stock and crops.
The system will provide a hub for rural information that is vital in a disease outbreak like foot-and-mouth disease or rural emergencies like floods.
Why is it needed?
FarmsOnLine will speed up and improve MAF Biosecurity New Zealand’s ability to locate properties, stock and crops and manage response programmes for any emergency or disease outbreak. It will improve emergency responses and reduce losses to farmers and the New Zealand economy.
What information will FarmsOnLine hold?
FarmsOnLine will hold information about farm location, ownership, management and the location of stock and crops.
How will the information in FarmsOnLine be used?
The information in FarmsOnLine will assist:
- Biosecurity and rural emergency responses
- Surveillance programmes to protect international market access
- Rural policy development
- Implementation of specific biosecurity related programmes, including the planned National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme and the Animal Health Board’s bovine tuberculosis management programme.
Note: Access to personal and stock/crop information in FarmsOnLine will be restricted to activities covered by the Biosecurity Act and to uses where a party can verify they have permission to access personal information. MAF has consulted with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in developing the approach to protection of personal information and will continue to do so leading up to and beyond the implementation of the system.
How much will FarmsOnLine cost?
Developing FarmsOnLine and establishing the base-line data-set including the privacy protocols will cost approximately $3 million, with operating costs of $9 million over 5 years. The FarmsOnLine project has a net present value of $3.89 million and a positive cost:benefit ratio of 1:38:11.
Will there be a cost for other agencies or industry to access the data?
Yes, but any data made available will be at a cost-recovery price. FarmsOnLine will not operate for profit.
Why can’t the Government get the data it needs from an existing system?
The required information is currently fragmented across a number of systems – for example, local authority rating databases, Terralink, LINZ’s Core Record System, AsureQuality’s AgriBase system and the postal rural delivery services.
Why build a new system for this purpose when an existing system, such as AgriBase, could be upgraded?
AsureQuality’s AgriBase system is indeed the most comprehensive source of rural property information available today.
The FarmsOnLine project team considered the option of enhancing and improving AgriBase in collaboration with AsureQuality. The analysis, however, showed that enhancing AgriBase would be more expensive and no faster than building a new application. In addition, there were no unique business benefits with this option that could not be achieved through a contestable procurement process.
What will happen to AgriBase?
That will be a decision for AsureQuality Ltd, which owns and operates AgriBase.
What about the value-added services AsureQuality provide that rely on AgriBase data?
All proposed uses of FarmsOnLine data must conform with the rules for access and use of the data, whether they are existing or new applications. AsureQuality will be able to access the non-restricted information in FarmsOnLine to continue to provide value-added services to its customers.
Restricted information can only be used for purposes covered by the proposed Biosecurity Act amendment, or where specific permission has been provided by the individual to use the data for that purpose. Some value-added services that use personal information may not meet either of these tests, and will not be able to continue.
Will farmers have to register their properties on FarmsOnLine?
No, MAF doesn't want to impose an unnecessary compliance burden on farmers when much of the required information can already be sourced from existing databases (subject to an amendment to the Biosecurity Act).
A MAF study indicates that bringing together data from local authorities alone will increase the number of New Zealand properties it has information about from 57 percent coverage to 90 percent.
Will there be any compulsory requirement for farmers to supply information that is not covered by existing databases?
No. FarmsOnLine is a purely voluntary system. In the future, however there may be indirect compulsion through other schemes that may use the FarmsOnLine data, for example the proposed National Animal Identification and Tracing Scheme. Any compulsion would need enabling legislation and the appropriate consultation.
How will FarmsOnLine ensure that the information it contains is accurate?
A FarmsOnLine Data Centre will update some 50,000 properties every year by contacting farmers via mail or phone. Property owners will also be able to update their information via the FarmsOnLine website.
Will property owners be able to withhold their personal information?
Yes. Having control over your own personal information is a fundamental privacy principle. MAF will respect this right.
Ideally, individuals would choose to “opt in” to FarmsOnLine. This approach, however, is logistically unrealistic, as FarmsOnLine is expected to contain some 220,000 properties. Instead, MAF will first collect the information from a range of sources. Individuals will then be able to review their personal information and, if they wish, request to have it withheld.
Won’t the ability to “opt out” affect the quality of information in FarmsOnLine?
It does mean that FarmsOnLine may not contain 100 percent coverage of rural properties in New Zealand. MAF, however, anticipates that the majority of New Zealand farmers will support the biosecurity benefits of the system and will willingly allow FarmsOnLine to hold relevant personal information.
A MAF survey of farmers in the South Wairarapa in 2005 backs this view. Only four percent of survey respondents declined to provide property, management and contact details and stock and crop information.
How will FarmsOnLine track crops and stock that change all the time?
MAF acknowledges that knowing exact details of crops and stock at all times is unrealistic. The focus is on knowing about the property, the land uses, existence or potential of stocks and crops by type, and vitally, being able to contact an owner or manager of that property so “today’s” information can be determined in the event of a biosecurity response, or to support surveillance activities.
Will the information in FarmsOnLine be used by the Emissions Trading Scheme?
FarmsOnLine will have very restricted access to information considered “personal” under the Privacy Act, specifically person name and contact details. This information will only be able to be used where there is enabling legislation in place. Initially, this will be restricted to the biosecurity response, surveillance and pest and disease management activities enabled by the Biosecurity Act (an amendment to that Act is being sought).
Any other potential use for personal information held within FarmsOnLine, such as the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme, will require specific legislation along with an appropriate consultation process.
It should be noted that the Government has not yet determined the point of obligation for agricultural emissions. At the moment a farm-level point of obligation is not MAF’s preferred option. Should the Government choose to implement a farm-level point of obligation, then MAF would seek to amend the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to enable the Government to access restricted information in FarmsOnLine relevant to the Emissions Trading Scheme. FarmsOnLine would provide the most efficient way of gathering that information.
Will there be any checks on how the information in FarmsOnLine is used?
Yes. An independent audit will be conducted each year and made available to the public. The audit will also be reviewed by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The audit will check that any uses of FarmsOnLine data conform to agreed rules, and will highlight any breaches.
Will local government have access to FarmsOnLine data to check that farmers are complying with environmental regulations?
Local and regional government will only be able to access information that is already in the public domain. Personal information will not be made available to an authority for any purpose other than those specified in the Biosecurity Act.
What about other activities that could use the data, for example food safety?
The farm identifier will be available for use in a number of food safety schemes – for example, residues that currently use the AgriBase identifier. The non-personal information in FarmsOnLine will be available to government and industry for food safety programmes.
NZFSA is currently reviewing their requirements and the Food Safety and Animal Product Act to determine what their requirements are and whether they will require any change to those Acts to access information that will held in FarmsOnLine.
What will the farm identifier look like?
It is MAF’s preference that the farm identifier will be structured to make it easier for individuals to relate to and remember. MAF will consult with stakeholders, industry and some individuals early in the implementation phase before making a final decision on the form of the identifier.
When will FarmsOnLine go live?
FarmsOnLine is anticipated to go-live in March 2011.
How is FarmsOnLine different to NAIT?
FarmsOnLine will not hold information on individual animals. In contrast, the National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme (NAIT) if it goes ahead will provide life-time traceability of individual livestock – initially cattle and deer. NAIT, will provide further enhancement to New Zealand’s biosecurity response and surveillance capability. It will also safeguard market access to high-value markets in the face of increasing demand for traceable agricultural products.
How will FarmsOnLine work with NAIT?
The two systems will not duplicate each other. FarmsOnLine will provide NAIT with reliable up-to-date information on rural properties, including farm location, ownership, management and stock and crop information. In other words, FarmsOnLine is enabling infrastructure for NAIT.
Why proceed with FarmsOnLine ahead of NAIT?
FarmsOnLine will fill many of the biosecurity information gaps identified in the wake of the foot and mouth disease scare on Waiheke Island in 2005. It is desirable to improve the quality of property information for biosecurity purposes as quickly as possible. It would also be helpful to have the property information required by NAIT ready to go when NAIT goes live.
Why not just use NAIT to collect the property information?
FarmsOnLine will manage information about all of the types of properties, not just properties relevant to NAIT (cattle and deer properties). It is noteworthy that the number of properties relevant to NAIT is considerably smaller than the overall volume of properties that FarmsOnLine will manage.
The diagram above shows the overlap in the types of property information that are within the scope of NAIT, FOL and the Animal Health Board. It also illustrates that FarmsOnLine is required independent of, as well as in support of, NAIT.
Contact for Enquiries
MAF Information Services
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Fax: +64 4 894 0721
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