- 6.1 ICP 551: Impact of e-Government on the rural sector
- 6.2 ICP 552: Farm adjustment and restructuring
- 6.3 ICP 553: A comparative study of the physical and financial performance of Mäori-owned and European-owned farm and horticultural businesses within Northland
6. Promoting Industry & Rural Community Performance
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.
6.1 ICP 551: Impact of e-Government on the rural sector
| Programme Title: | Impact of e-Government on the rural sector |
| Programme Leader: | Chris Nixon |
| Institution: | NZIER |
Programme Goal: Our goal is to focus on the ideal design of a rural e-government strategy, liaise and canvass the opinions of key farming and rural interest organisations and other government agencies (particularly SSC), and tease out the potential implications of e-Government for the rural sector (through a cost benefit type analysis).
The motivation and rationale for this project is to build on the information already known about e-commerce and how it will impact on agriculture, and apply that knowledge, along with further research, to develop an efficient e-government strategy for the agricultural and rural sectors.
What do we know about the impact of e-commerce and its implications for e-government?
The stylised facts are:
E-commerce will have a major impact on traditional businesses as an enabling technology - therefore, government as a traditional business, will most probably be in the forefront of potential efficiency gains (MAF Policy Position Paper No 24).
It puts the consumer in command. Systems must be designed to suit citizens not governments, to maximise efficiency - i.e. the criticism levelled at government moves, so far, is that they are not focusing as much as they should be on the consumer. (NZIER is working with SSC on its e-Government strategy in this area). Alongside this generic interaction with the citizenry, is the specific information the government seeks from the agricultural and rural communities.
There are technological impediments that disadvantage rural users relative to urban users (MAF Policy Technical paper 00/19 and 01/01). (But note that there are alternative technologies that will become available which have the potential to remedy these, in the longer term.)
The proposed research will take into account the work other agencies are doing, particularly the SSC's e-government unit. If that group is targeting better levels of communication and integration between government agencies, ("joined up government") how could MAF's aims be best advanced within and complementary to this strategy? The research will also take account of the Government's initiatives to address the digital divide/provide digital opportunity, and the range of measures designed to encourage bandwidth enhancement throughout the whole economy.
Other factors to be considered include, the results of a recent NZIER public sector IT study (for an officials group led by DPM&C) that had a number of conclusions, including don't do big projects. Are there any other factors (such as the connectedness of rural schools, and other community facilities) that could impact on rural e-government uptake and use?
While e-government will be important, most of the next series of changes in both government delivery (driven off fiscal pressures) and the location and in particular consolidation, of other rural activity, (propelled by economic forces) will proceed regardless of e-government initiatives, and any other MAF policy.
· Note: (Details of each objective and its methodology are covered in the revised Expression of Interest dated 16 July negotiated between the MAF & NZIER staff involved).
Objective 1
Objective Title: Ideal design.
Research Leader: Nixon/Yeabsley.
Description:
Is e-government important to rural users? In this objective we will focus on a stylised version of rural interaction with government, and use this approach to tease out the potential shape of any rural e-government initiative. This will lead to the development of a framework that could be used as a model to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of e-government as a solution platform for rural users.
Objective 2
Objective Title: Interaction with stakeholders.
Research Leader: Nixon/Yeabsley.
Description
This part of the program is to gather information about the views of key stakeholders who have an interest in the rural sector. This includes, other government agencies, and groups representing rural users and would encompass timetables, goals, expectations and general feedback. The aim is collect a picture of the extent to which these are consistent and realistic.
6.2 ICP 552: Farm adjustment and restructuring
| Programme Title: | Farm adjustment and restructuring |
| Programme Leader: | Tony Rhodes |
| Institution: | Agriculture New Zealand |
Programme Goal: To assess how North Island Hill Country farmers are restructuring their businesses, and how this response is influenced by economic and social environmental factors.
To assess how these responses will impact on sector performance, and the implications of these changes for agricultural sustainability and the sustainability of rural communities.
Rationale: A previous study, Impediments to Optimising the Economic and Environmental Performance of Agriculture, by Rhodes, Smith and Willis, indicated that many hill country farms were not economically viable. This raises the issue of how quickly the sector is able to restructure and respond to change and shift farm resources to more optimal, economic and sustainable use, and why such structural change appears to be so slow.
This study will look at firstly how much change is occurring, and the impediments and supportive conditions contributing to change. Secondly, it will examine whether such change is generating better outcomes such as more effective economic use of resources, and stronger more sustainable rural communities and service sectors.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Nature and extent of restructuring
Research Leader: Jeremy Neild.
Description:
The aim is to quantify the extent of change in farm business ownership and size that has occurred over a five-year period in three hill country districts, Tararua, Wairoa, and Taumaranui. In addition, the nature and extent of other changes such as the emergence of new ventures and enterprises and changes in off-farm income will be assessed.
Objective 2
Objective Title: The impediments to farm restructuring.
Research Leader: Dr Willie Smith.
Description
The aim of this research component is to identify and rank the importance of the various factors and issues that prevent or constrain change occurring that economic factors suggest should occur i.e. resource movement from unprofitable uses to the most profitable.
Objective 3
Objective Title: Off-farm impact of change.
Research Leader: Tony Rhodes.
Description
There is a process of ongoing change occurring in rural communities and local servicing centres. However it is difficult to link these directly to restructuring that is occurring in the district. We propose a number of paired studies comparing rural towns in terms of population trends, employment data, and information on socio-economic issues.
The aim is to document change that is occurring, and try and establish linkages between different kinds of change.
6.3 ICP 553: A comparative study of the physical and financial performance of Mäori-owned and European-owned farm and horticultural businesses within Northland
| Programme Title: | A comparative study of the physical and financial performance of Mäori-owned and European-owned farm and horticultural businesses within Northland |
| Programme Leader: | Mr Gavin Ussher |
| Institution: | Agriculture New Zealand |
Programme Goal: A comparative study of the physical and financial performance of Mäori -owned and European-owned farm and horticultural businesses within Northland.
Goal: through analysis and the discussion with owners, identify the level of physical and financial performance of Mäori -owned pastoral and horticultural businesses. To compare them with European- owned businesses of similar scale.
Rationale for research: There are significant numbers of Mäori -owned farms throughout Northland, especially in the Far North District. There are relatively few horticultural enterprises. The size of these farms varies tremendously from a large number of 10-50 hectare properties through to 2,300-hectare enterprises. While some figures indicate that the large-scale farms are operating at a moderately high level, there is no current research identifying this or comparing their production with European -owned farms. We do not know how the small to medium size farms are operating, what is the farming ownership; what levels of production are being achieved, what levels of farm inputs are being used. There are a considerable number of small Mäori-owned farms being leased to adjacent Mäori or European owned businesses. Exactly how many and the terms and conditions of these leases is unknown. There is no known recent research covering details of any constraints to current production in Mäori-owned businesses.
Objective 1
Objective Title: Number and Location of M_ori Enterprises.
Research Leader: G. Ussher.
Description:
The objective is to provide data covering pastoral and horticultural Mäori-owned businesses within Northland - the actual number, range in physical size, geographic location, enterprise etc and commenting on the change in numbers over the last 10 years.
Objective 2
Objective Title: Case Studies Showing Land-Use Variation.
Research Leader: G. Ussher.
Description
Four case studies to be undertaken to obtain physical and financial information. This is to show actual production being obtained on Mäori-owned properties and then comparing with similar sized operations of European ownership.
Note: This will be done through case studies as follows:
- Case Study 1: Large-scale sheep and beef enterprises.
- Case Study 2: M_ori dairy Farms
- Case Study 3: Small to medium sized beef farms.
- Case Study 4: Lease of land.
Objective 3
Objective Title: Constraints to Production.
Research Leader: G. Ussher
Description
Aim is to obtain commentary from both the researchers and the M_ori business owners as to what they see are the current constraints to production.
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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