- 1. Marg Gilling, project leader
- 2. Elizabeth Mortland — Community Education Officer for Ruapehu REAP, Taihape.
- 3. Gavin Reeves, hill country farmer, Mangaweka.
- 4. Viv Eames, Community Worker for the Rangitikei Rural Community Service.
Rangitikei Project — a community in transition
1. Marg Gilling, project leader
The Rangitikei research project was designed to describe the living standards of farm families in the mid Rangitikei region, to explore links between social, economic and political factors, and to understand community dynamics.
Over 150 people were interviewed during the first half of 1996, including 70 farm families and residents of Taihape and Mangaweka townships. People were located by snowball sampling after meetings with such groups as Women’s Division Federated Farmers, Taihape Community Health Group, CWI, the Rotary Club, school staff and Boards of Trustees. Two public meetings were also conducted. The research team included Sara Kindon (Victoria University of Wellington), Geoff Hume-Cook (communications consultant) and Marg Gilling (at the time on the staff of Business and Economic Research Limited — BERL).
Summary findings:
Farming in mid-Rangitikei is in transition from being wholly reliant on pastoral farming to a diverse range of activities, the pattern for which is not yet clear. The loss of farm subsidies and other 1980s changes, such as the stock market crash, had an immediate and damaging effect on farming families. People are only now realising that the changes have had lasting and fundamental impact.
Family culture is changing: the dynamics between generations, men and women, adults and children have changed, as have the roles of family members on farm and in the house. New expectations are arising from family members taking paid employment and from their changed roles in the community.
In material terms living standards of mid-Rangitikei farm families have remained relatively stable but derive from more varied sources. Most important changes are those occurring in values and attitudes; for example, beliefs and practices about succession, about the place of farmers in the country, and attitudes towards government. The result at present is considerable personal, spiritual and family uncertainty.
Most people in the region seem to focus on survival, not sustainability. There is a feeling of powerlessness that makes it difficult for people to plan for the future or think about sustainability. Community support and improved lifelong education are necessary to ensure positive adaptation to changes in family structure, in interpersonal relations, in managing finance and the whole panoply of new skills required to realise the full potential of rural people in these challenging times.
2. Elizabeth Mortland — Community Education Officer for Ruapehu REAP, Taihape.
I can see family culture changing. It’s a paradigm shift. In the past the family farm was passed from grandfather to father to son and people knew where they stood. I have a sense that people are not always consciously aware of what is happening: overtly they still operate in the traditional way. But there are subtle changes. I heard the comment, "it’s a form of child abuse to expect your son to take over the farm." There is uncertainty about what the future holds — people are feeling powerless.
My own story illustrates aspects of the changes. I am the oldest of three daughters of a typical farming family. Traditionally the eldest son inherited the farm. Though this wasn’t really an option for me — as a non-farmer type of person, with university education and a career I enjoy — somehow growing up I learnt that as the eldest I would have responsibility for caring for the farm.
After our parents retired some years ago and moved away to warmer climes, it was decided that my sister and her husband will take over the farm. Only now, personal feelings have begun to surface. Where do I fit in? I feel I am losing my birthright, my turangawaewae. The place where I gained my life force is no longer available to me. I know I have other skills and can make a good life, but that knowing is in my head: my heart hurts and is painful.
I believe many farming men and women are going through a similar process. Many are reconsidering farming, for themselves and certainly for their children, but do not see other options. I see farmers as having a whole range of skills — business management, practical skills, the ability to juggle jobs and risks, handling isolation and their own company — but often they don’t see these as skills. So they can feel stuck, not recognising that with such skills they have options, and they feel pain. They don’t know which way to go. What do we do? Where do we go?
3. Gavin Reeves, hill country farmer, Mangaweka.
The report accurately reflects perceptions I have received from the local community. Most analysis in agriculture and farming is based on economic considerations, as if the people component are machines to be turned on and off at need. The report talks about rural people. It shows they are fragile — just like everybody else.
The rural sector feels it is not important. In lobbying for education and health services you have to lobby from the perspective of a disadvantaged group. This creates a feeling of inferiority and you doubt your own judgment after a while. In business you need to have confidence in your decisions — to spend money or whatever - so you get a return. There is a lack of business confidence in our area and very few people are planning for growth. They are struggling to survive and they resent it.
There’s a leadership vacuum. Who’ll drive the vision? Who has the mandate? Who does the strategic thinking? I’m supposed to be full-time farmer, my wife works, the kids go to music and ballet. We have trouble getting people to fill the Boards of Trustees positions at our school. I got the job as chairman. Trustees keep leaving. Who else is going to do the job? I don’t want to, but my children go to school there.
Vision. In the report there’s a quote from an older farmer at a public meeting: "If you want us to leave tell us now. Don’t let us linger on." The feeling is, "Where are we going?" Farmers don’t know. Its a hell of a way to run a business. We’ve been restructuring agriculture for 13 years!! In a business if you haven’t stabilised and become profitable in 5 years, you’re gone. Where’s the vision? Much is made of business consultants doing strategic planning and re-engineering to get business focused on what it’s doing. In big business the CEOs or board do it. As a family I guess we’re the lot. OK, that’s typical of small business everywhere.
The multi-layering of risk is starting to tell on the community. It’s not just the weather — I can handle that. It’s not just feeding out in winter, not just the overdraft, not just international prices. It’s all these, plus interest rates, overlaid by the exchange rate, influenced by the Consumer Price Index. I have fixed costs. My profit is determined by what is left after I’m paid. On top of all this is whether there is a school or health service. It wears you down. You wonder if it’s worth it.
Questions asked in the 1994 GATT Conference Proceedings closely parallel those asked in this report. How does NZ take advantage of GATT? What will farming be like in the 2000s? What is the potential for NZ agriculture? What could we do if there were no barriers? The tragedy is, as the report shows, that we have put up barriers of our own to stifle the potential.
This conference is also about sustainability. I’d better mention the word. In the report it says, "Who is worrying about sustainability if survival is the name of the game?" I will leave you with this poem by Jim Morris, also in the report:
| Sustainability They mutter of erosion In their offices of glass, And say this block should be retired Before another season’s passed. They speak of soil and water And the values they hold grand, Then go and build another suburb |
4. Viv Eames, Community Worker for the Rangitikei Rural Community Service.
I am married to a sheep farmer who diversified into tourism 15 years ago when it was thought eccentric and hardly encouraged. I travel back country roads checking on the needs of farming families — foremost as a listening ear, and referring people on to an appropriate service such as counselling or ‘home help’.
Loneliness is the most common thing I find, due to the demise of the small communities as local schools and services close. Women think nothing of travelling over 100kms to work, further isolating themselves from their neighbours. Telephone ‘party lines’ have just disappeared, often a curse, but at least you knew someone was there. Nor are there the travelling sales callers now.
Yet not many rural people would swap places with a ‘townie’ — as it says in the report: "Its a wonderful place to live if you don’t have to make a living." It seems ironical that since the report was done we have sold out the family farm of three generations and shifted to a smaller property to put more effort into our rural tourism business.
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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