Farm Families and Sustainability in the mid Rangitikei
Prepared for MAF
Marg Gilling
DisclaimerWhile every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this publication is accurate, the Ministry of Agriculture does not accept any responsibility or liability for error of fact, omission, interpretation or opinion which may be present, nor for the consequences of any decision based on this information.
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Acknowledgments
In order to reach our research goals in the mid Rangitikei we had to meet people, be given initial trust, then access to information. To be invited to share a meal, entrusted with stories from the past, present, and told of their hopes or despair about the future - a privilege and an awesome responsibility. Thank you to the people we met in the mid Rangitikei, especially the families who agreed to talk with us, individually and in groups, and to everyone for their friendliness and support. We hope we have done justice to your words, and your understanding.
Special thanks to Gavin and Dianne Reeves who ‘opened the door’ for us to the community; to Viv Eames, who knocked on many more doors, provided support and common sense throughout the period; to Simon Hogg, for his cheerfulness and practical help; Mangaweka School for allowing us to use the school house for a month; to Neil and Virginia Travers for their cottage; and to Elizabeth Mortland for her questions, argument, perception, and hard work.
To the two families whose stories appear in more detail in the text - thank you.
Thanks to the members of the Advisory Group. Your faith in us enabled us to take risks, make decisions and connect with people.
Thanks to MAF for sponsoring such a project. The truism ‘the more you know the more you realise how little you know’ is appropriate for this research project, which aimed to capture the sense and shape of people’s lives - their words, their unspoken language, their actions, and their dreams. A special thank you to Dr Ann Pomeroy, Manager, Rural Affairs, MAF, for her challenge, her insight, her support throughout this project.
Thanks to Geoffrey Hume-Cook and Sara Kindon, who worked for several months on the project before, during and after the field work stages. Thanks to Alice Wards for doing a preliminary historical foray into the mid-Rangitikei, and to Kate Garland for assistance with references and other practical details. Thanks to Lee Pomeroy for a major edit, and Lyndsay Peterson for typesetting.
Thanks to BERL which was the host institution for this research project.
The worth of this project will be measured by the questions it provokes, and the stimulus it can provide for action in the mid-Rangitikei, and wider New Zealand.
Marg Gilling
project leader
Foreword For many years now the Ministry of Agriculture has been promoting sustainable agriculture as a concept involving financial sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. In this context, social sustainability refers to the social well being of rural communities which both support agriculture and which are in turn supported by agriculture.The purpose of this project was to examine some of the social elements of sustainable agriculture in the Mid-Rangitikei as a case study area. The study is entitled "Farm Families and Sustainability in the Mid-Rangitikei", and the field work was completed in mid 1997.
While the study cannot purport to represent all the issues facing farming families in all parts of New Zealand, it does present a detailed "snapshot" of issues as perceived by the study participants.
The report describes the effects of "farming in transition" on individuals in the case study area. These effects are related to the sustainability of farming in the Mid-Rangitikei region. The anecdotes supporting the discussion are personal. Some are pessimistic, others more optimistic. All are real, and all will to some extent influence the future of farming.
In my experience, the general "story" which is presented for the Mid-Rangitikei area is reasonably representative of small agricultural communities throughout New Zealand. This project therefore provides—for the first time—an insight into the complex web of issues and challenges facing the sustainability of many rural communities in New Zealand farming.
This makes the study a valuable piece of research for all central and local government policy makers to read so that they may better understand one of the target groups of their policy. This understanding should in turn improve the process and quality of policy development impacting on rural New Zealand in general, and farming in particular.
I wish to add my appreciation to the people who contributed to the study. Without your willing and honest participation the project would not have been possible. And finally, I wish to endorse this report to all policy makers with an interest in rural New Zealand. The story told is compelling and deserving of full consideration and policy deliberations.
Alan Walker
Director, Rural Policy
MAF Policy
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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