1.5 The Future Contribution of QA/EMS to Sustainable Agriculture/Sustainable Land Management
Not all aspects of sustainability have to be dealt with in one single scheme for a contribution to be made to that outcome. Single purpose schemes will make a contribution, but not to all aspects of the definition at once.
A number of conclusions have been drawn that are relevant to the future contribution of these schemes to sustainable agriculture and land management outcomes. They include:
1.5.1 Schemes need firstly to be market based to motivate participation. They need to address real concerns of some importance to consumers. Consumers may or may not pay a premium, and they may become simply a cost of doing business.
1.5.2 Payment structures for producers that reflect their risk taking capacity will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the schemes.
1.5.3 A tiered system of selling produce could provide rewards to the innovative producers, a stable income to the conventional farmers, and penalties for the under-achievers.
1.5.4 QA/EM systems that target the achievement of sustainable agriculture and land management specifically will need to be multipurpose in design if they are to provide assurances of food quality, environmental, animal welfare, financial and social outcomes on a cohesive whole farm basis. At present, the market is not providing sufficient incentive for any one stakeholder in these systems to develop them in this way.
1.5.5 New Zealand is missing a facilitating agent bringing together the various parties with an interest in how these on-farm QA/EM systems develop, and with the resources available to provide sufficient incentive for the various parties to collaborate.
1.5.6 It is important that communication between industries and companies developing these systems be facilitated to compare notes on systems design, development processes and implementation lessons. While companies and industry groups see the value, none have sufficient incentive or the time to undertake this pan- company/industry facilitation role themselves.
1.5.7 Policy agencies need to consider the advantages to resource management of having farmers in quality schemes, and reduce the costs of these farmers meeting their requirements. Further work is required to enable quality and environmental management systems approaches to be formally recognised within existing legislation.
1.5.8 Quality and environmental management systems work best when they are the responsibility of everybody in the supply chain, and not just farmers.
1.5.9 To contribute best to sustainability outcomes, quality and environmental management systems will need to address whole properties, and all the products being produced, and be verifiable (audited) by checking:
- the management system (e.g. PDCA cycle)
- the level of sustainability (e.g. by nutrient balance)
- product safety and conformity (e.g. random residue tests by processors)
1.5.10 A planning focus should be based on HACCP principles. Many whole farm plans are limited by the mass of detail they try and incorporate in order to be as specific about the whole farm as they would be with any one of its components.
1.5.11 Farmers and growers will need very good support in the form of `what and how to monitor" information, as well as problem solving guidelines that enable them to break down the integrative whole farm standards and solve specific management problems as they arise.
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