- Impact of agricultural change on rural communities - phase 2
- Review of overseas experience in using compulsorily acquired funds to finance industry activities such as research, generic promotion and information collection and dissemination in agriculture
- Agricultural sector debt and debt servicing
- An examination of factors affecting farmers' use of management practices to achieve sustainable agriculture: a case study approach
- Field Testing of Best Management Practice Guidelines for Sustainable Management of Irrigation Water
- Implications of groundwater nitrate standards for agricultural management
- Objective 3
8. Promoting industry and rural community development
The broader economic and social environment significantly affects New Zealand’s ability to produce quality products and take advantage of opportunities offered by international markets. This category provides information that will assist in developing and implementing policies that encourage the development of an efficient domestic business environment and viable rural communities.
Research activities will include:
- Determining the impact of the socio-economic environment on agriculture and horticulture. This includes analysing the effects of
- various marketing arrangements,
- sector wide issues (e.g. agriculture’s contribution to GDP,
- efficiency gains,
- exchange rates, level of capital investment),
- international financial trends,
- farm management procedures (business and ownership structures - including Maori structures, level of diversification, farm debt and income, labour availability and employment opportunities), and
- determining the net impact of changes in rural communities on agriculture (e.g. impact of changes in government social policies on rural communities and agriculture including services available to rural communities).
- Determining the impact of the legislative environment on agriculture and horticulture. This includes analysing compliance costs associated with recent government interventions (e.g. RMA, HSE Act, ACC, tax legislation, producer boards, Companies and Cooperative Companies Acts, Financial Reporting Act), and the transfer of costs from central to regional government (e.g. pest control).
- Determining the effectiveness of government interventions implemented to benefit agriculture (e.g. technology/information transfer mechanisms).
- Developing social, economic and related biophysical indicators at each of the various levels (e.g. farm business, agri-business, regional, national) to provide reliable data for policy development.
| Programme Title: | Impact of agricultural change on rural communities - phase 2 |
| Programme Leader: | Professor Richard Bedford |
| Institution: | Waikato University |
| Programme Goal: | To provide a North Island case study to validate relationships between changes in agricultural systems and rural communities which have been established during the first phase of the project "Impact of agricultural change on rural communities". Phase 2 of the project will explore the dynamic relationships between changes in agricultural systems and rural communities in the Central North Island between 1986 and 1996 in the wider context of demographic and economic changes in rural areas and the small towns which service these areas. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Demographic and Economic Change in the Central North Island. |
| Research Leader: | Professor Richard Bedford |
Description:
This objective provides the regional overview of rural and small town population dynamics and economic change in the Central North Island between 1986 and 1996. The region includes the Waikato and Bay of Plenty Regional Council areas as well as the area surrounding Taumaranui. This regional overview is essential for situating the three case studies (Objective 2) in context.
This objective will:
- describe changes in the spatial distribution, age-sex structure, and ethnic composition of the small town, rural community and rural dispersed populations, by sub-region;
- determine characteristics of and changes in the occupation and income characteristics of rural residents by major rural industrial group, by sub-region;
- identify changes in patters of land use at a sub-regional level;
- define the links between population change and land use in the region during the 10 year period.
Objective 2
| Objective Title: | Case Studies of Service Centres and Rural Communities |
| Research Leader: | Professor Richard Bedford |
Description:
This objective explores the linkages between rural economic and demographic change and specific communities in the Central North Island. The selection of the communities has yet to be finalised, but possibilities include Taumaranui (hill country farming/ forestry hinterland), Whakatane (dairying/horticulture/fishing and forestry hinterland), and Te Kauwhata (sheep farming/stud farms/vineyards hinterland).
This objective will:
- determine the economic and social interdependencies between each of the selected communities and their local agricultural hinterland/economies;
- examine the nature of changes in the business and service sectors of the selected communities between 1986 and 1996;
- explore the changing nature of power relationships within the selected communities and their surrounding hinterlands, at both the community and the household levels;
- define the links between land use change and community development at the level of the settlement and its hinterland.
| Programme Title: | Review of overseas experience in using compulsorily acquired funds to finance industry activities such as research, generic promotion and information collection and dissemination in agriculture |
| Programme Leader: | Professor Tony Zwart |
| Institution: | Lincoln University |
| Programme Goal: | To obtain, and analyse with respect to the New Zealand situation, information on international experience in changing the funding mechanism for agricultural industry activities, including research, generic promotion and information collection and dissemination, which will be of value to MAF in providing advice to Government when it considers changes to funding mechanisms in New Zealand. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Desk research into funding mechanisms |
| Research Leader: | Professor Tony Zwart |
Description:
Review and analysis of published information and additional material on changes to compulsory levies or Government funding regimes, obtained through telephone and e-mail discussion with the wide range of contacts built up by AERU and Department staff with overseas researchers, government officials and industry participants.
| Programme Title: | Agricultural sector debt and debt servicing |
| Programme Leader: | Roger Wilkinson |
| Institution: | Landcare Research |
| Programme Goal: | To provide MAF Policy with information on the amount and structure of debt on New Zealand farms to help form agricultural policy. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Survey of farm debt |
| Research Leader: | Roger Wilkinson |
Description
A survey will be conducted to determine the current level and structure of farm debt in New Zealand. The survey will collect data on the type and purpose of each debt type held by farmers and the results will be analysed by farm type. Debts will be determined as at 30 June 1998 and some indication of how farm debt has changed since that time will be obtained. The results will allow MAF Policy to estimate the total interest paid by the New Zealand agricultural and horticultural sectors.
- an unbiased national random sample survey of 1,000 farmers, stratified by farm type,
- designed to provide estimates of farm debt within ±3 percent at the 95 percent confidence interval,
- conducted to provide a minimum response rate of 80 percent.
A written report will be produced which describes the survey methodology used and the results obtained. In addition this report will update the earlier analysis published by Pomeroy & Reynolds (MAF Policy Paper No. 109) and will include a comparison of the survey results with other available information on farm debt.
9. Facilitating resource management
This category provides information that will assist in developing and implementing policies on biophysical factors that influence sustainable agricultural practices namely food safety, environmental effects due to agriculture and horticulture, and animal welfare issues driven by domestic concerns. A key driver for all three issues has been the urbanisation of the population that has isolated the majority of New Zealanders from contact with agriculture. Negative aspects of farming are open to exploitation by the media. Increasingly, the public is demanding assurances from farmers and food processors about the manner in which food is produced. "Quality products from a quality environment" encapsulates these concerns.
This research category deals with farming systems and requires multi-disciplinary research. Research activities are likely to include:
- Developing effective food safety standards. The development of the Hazards Analysis Critical Control Point approach to food safety could revolutionise the inspection function in our food processing industries. New policy to introduce contestability for verifying and certifying food safety needs to be underpinned by adequate research if the potential efficiency gains are to be achieved and food safety maintained.
- Determining the effects of farming practices on the environment. This information is necessary to evaluate perceptions that New Zealand’s environmental performance lags behind Australia and some other OECD countries. Information in this area is also essential for developing the policy processes of relevant legislation e.g. the Resource Management Act.
- Developing decision support tools to provide assurances to consumers of the quality of food and fibre (food safety, low residues), and aspects of farming systems and practices impacting on animal welfare and the environment.
- Providing environmental indicators or reporting systems for monitoring soil quality, water quality, air quality, biodiversity and energy use.
- Developing animal welfare guidelines. Farming practices directly affect animal welfare. Information is needed to objectively judge whether traditional practices (e.g. methods for docking sheep) should be changed or whether they are acceptable.
| Programme Goal: | To determine models that explain why farmers choose to adopt sustainable resource management practices. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Defining the people and their relationships involved in the management of effluent on dairy farms. |
| Research Leader: | M S Paine |
Description:
This objective will bring together farmers, policy makers, researchers, and industry personnel involved in the management of dairy effluent. The information known by each of the groups will be compared to identify where gaps and inconsistencies exist. Key individuals will be selected from each of the groups to identify ways to fill the gaps and maximise the interaction between the groups. This study will provide the information necessary to assess models that could be used to explain why farmers make the choices they do.
This will be achieved by:
- Mentor Group: Interested agencies will participate in a mentor group which will meet three times throughout the year to review study methods and research outputs. Potential members include MAF Policy, Ministry for the Environment, Meat Research Development Council, Regional Councils & the NZ Dairy Board.
- Peer Group: Three Peer Group meetings will be held with social researchers from Auckland University, Otago University, NZ Landcare Research and private research companies to critique the methodology and interpretation of the results.
- Stakeholder Linkages: Stakeholders will be identified and attend a workshop where a linkage diagramming process will be used to describe interactions and influences on farmers' decisions.
- Stakeholder Interviews: Interviews with stakeholders to discover their knowledge about effluent disposal, it issues and problems and their plans for dealing with these issues.
- Recommendations to Improve Practice Management: Workshops will be held with stakeholders and researchers to develop these recommendations.
| Programme Goal: | To provide tested Best Management Practice guidelines for sustainable irrigation. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Field Testing of Irrigation BMG’s |
| Research Leader: | Mr Ian McIndoe |
Description:
The Best Management Guidelines (BMG’s) developed in the 1997/98 project were tested to a limited extent on two farms in the 1997/98 irrigation season. This project will be continued to ensure the guidelines are fully tested on three farms over the 1998/99 irrigation season. The primary objective of the project is assessing the BMG’s suitability and value for measuring and improving sustainable water use for irrigation. The longer-term goal is to have irrigation farmers adopt and use the BMG’s on a national scale.
| Programme Title: | Implications of groundwater nitrate standards for agricultural management |
| Programme Leader: | Jacalyn Scott |
| Institution: | Eco-link Limited |
| Programme Goal: | To assess the farm management, production and economic implications of drinking water standards for nitrate concentrations being applied to ground water management in New Zealand. |
Objective 1
| Objective Title: | Nitrate leaching from three farm types |
| Research Leader: | Dr Glyn Francis |
Description:
This objective will;
- Determine the relationships between "typical" farm management practices and resultant nitrate leaching losses below the root zone for representative dairying, arable and market garden farms, in New Zealand.
- Estimate the effect of different farm management strategies on nitrate leaching losses and farm production, in relation to groundwater nitrate levels, for each enterprise.
Objective 2
| Objective Title: | Nitrate leaching impacts on groundwater |
| Research Leader: | Vince Bidwell |
Description
- Estimate the range of groundwater nitrate concentrations likely to occur in aquifers, in response to the estimates of nitrate leaching losses provided by Objective 1.
- Assess the sensitivity of nitrate contamination levels in groundwater to changes in nitrate leaching losses, for the selected aquifers.
Objective 3
| Objective Title: | The management, production and economic implications. |
| Research Leader: | Peter Jarvis |
Description:
- Quantify the production and economic impacts of improved nitrogen management strategies on the three representative enterprise types in their corresponding aquifers.
- Estimate the farm production and economic impacts of improved nitrogen management at the industry level for these study locations, subject to data availability.
- Assess the management implications.
Objective 4
| Objective Title: | Development and submission of final report |
| Research Leader: | Jacalyn Scott |
Description:
Complete the report, detailing the method development, testing and use in experiments, and analysis of research outcomes related to objectives.
Contact for Enquiries
Farm Monitoring Programme Manager
Monitoring and Evaluation
MAF Policy
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0623
Fax: +64 4 894 0741
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