The food innovation value chain should be part of the school curriculum. Photo / Michael Craig
The latest productivity data from Stats NZ make it quite clear that without agriculture, New Zealand would be severely in the doldrums.
Similar statements were made during Covid when the economy didn’t crash as expected because the primary sector, from which New Zealand’s wealth stems, kept going.
The latest data suggest that it is going “better than ever”.
For the year to March 2025, New Zealand labour productivity increased 0.8%, capital productivity fell 3.0% and multifactor productivity fell 0.9%.
In considerable contrast, agricultural productivity was 11.5% (labour), 7% (capital) and 9.3% (multifactor).
Without the agricultural sector, the average figures would look even worse.
Indeed, a case could be made that the rest of the country might be holding agriculture back – we are trying to boost ailing sectors while not supporting agriculture to the max.
The question of how to increase agricultural productivity was raised at the New Zealand Agricultural and Climate Change Conference, held in Wellington at the end of April.
Although the questioner might not have seen the latest productivity data, the general figures over the various economic cycles recorded since 1978 have had agriculture in the lead.
Productivity in agriculture, unbuffered by subsidies, is a story of innovation and adoption.
Farmers, their families and the country have benefited.
How it can be improved in the future is a big question that, contrary to popular belief, will not be solved by artificial intelligence, because somebody has to understand the biological system, which is unpredictable, and recognise anomalies and nonsense.
Speaking at the conference, economist Cameron Bagrie was clear about the answer – education.
Writing for BusinessDesk, he has explained that education is an essential part of the economic formula for addressing social challenges and increasing living standards.
Writing for the NZ Herald, Bagrie said, ”Education today will define the economy and society in 30 years."
The current Government is trying to change the education system to ensure that reading, writing and ’rithmetic standards are improved.
Science is also back in profile.
Bagrie’s observation on today’s education influencing the future is a good one.
The food innovation value chain, from soil to saliva, should be part of that education, and embedded throughout the school curriculum so understanding becomes innate – history incorporating the reason for the Irish population in New York, why Chinese dynasties changed, and the failures of colonisation of Greenland.
Global culture – what is Thanksgiving Day acknowledging?
Biology, considering the concept of “limiting factor” in growth and the role of added nutrients in feeding people … and then on to ecology.
Economics and geography are also part of the story.
Certainly, some teachers try to do what is required, but the innovation value chain needs more in order to increase productivity.
Artificial intelligence is part of the answer, but whereas some people think it will put people out of work, others think programmes are reinforcing their own misunderstandings and getting more confused.
The issue of expertise and understanding being required for spotting nonsense is real. And education is the answer.
That means encouraging students to do the subjects that will give them options in the many rewarding careers available along the food innovation value chain, from farm to fork and grass to glass.
The GHG conference delegates did not suggest we need more technologies to change the cow metabolism – they generally decrease productivity (when time for administration is considered as well).
They did suggest we need more experts in farm systems, which means experts who understand the different components of the farm and can integrate them for individual farm success.
Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Dr Jacqueline Rowarth on The Country below:
Supporting those experts must be further experts in soil, pasture animals and the environment, and supporting them are physicists, chemists and biologists. And economists and historians and geographers and everything else.
This change means changing the emphasis in the education system to reward the subjects that are founded on memory and accuracy – the so-called “hard” subjects.
Sport, art and culture are important and can be part of marketing, but when one knows about what the world needs – high-quality, sustainably produced food – there will almost always be a job, and global opportunities abound.
Education was not the top answer from the conference as to how New Zealand was going to unlock its low-emission future, but education is a given in productivity, and it also affects the unlocking answers.
At the top of the conference was “farmer adoption” (incorporating capability, advice and on-farm support), followed by “policy and incentives” and “research and evidence”.
Having people who understand food production, based on education from school to tertiary studies, is vital.
And the more food production is taught within the different school curriculum subjects, the more productivity can increase, even when it is already good.
Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Adjunct Professor Lincoln University, is a farmer-elected director on Ravensdown and DairyNZ and a member of the Scientific Council of the World Farmers’ Organisation.