Farming after a cyclone can’t be the same as it always was

A lake on a Central Hawke's Bay farm after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Miles McBain

Opinion

As our region, and especially its food and fibre sector, begins to rethink and plan a more resilient future, sustainable farming principles and environmental outcomes must guide our path.

These principles reflect that our agricultural sector’s economic viability is very much determined by global consumers and decision-makers and that our food-growing systems must better respect and work with nature. These two are inter-connected.

Our overseas markets define our farming reality. The world’s leading food retailers in the US, UK, Europe and Asia are demanding ever more stringent sustainability standards - increasingly more closely monitored - must be met if we expect to be on their ‘shopping lists’.

Being seen to be credibly doing our bit with respect to greenhouse gas mitigation is a key element of those expectations. And that means actual mitigation or reduction in emissions, not buying offshore carbon credits.

Mitigation, in turn, entails changes in on-farm practices - including reduced fuel use, reduced use of synthetic fertilisers and imported feeds, sequestering carbon in new plantings and growing soil depth.

As they consider the likely climate in 2050, farmers and growers should assess the suitability of the land they farm for permanent crops, arable crops, pasture production, commercial forestry or retirement into indigenous vegetation. We must adopt the most appropriate land use with revegetation of steeper erosion-prone slopes and shelter/shade planting throughout pasture lands that prepare the land resource, farming infrastructure, people and livestock for a more lumpy climate (severe winds, long, hot, dry periods and high rainfall intensity).

Happily, these practice changes - especially within the right national emissions policy framework - create opportunities for farmers and growers to improve their profitability as well as achieve hugely important ancillary benefits such as improved animal welfare, less soil erosion and nutrient run-off, greater weather resilience, water and energy savings and access to premium food markets.

Quorum Sense here in New Zealand, Land to Market in the US, and the global initiative Regrow are leading programmes helping farmers to understand and adopt more sustainable practices that can be verified and rewarded in the marketplace. Major banks – Rabobank, BNZ and ASB, for example – are introducing ‘sustainability loans’.

Huge global food production and marketing corporates like Nestle, Danone, McCains, Unilever, Cargill, PepsiCo and McDonald’s have formed groups like the Sustainable Markets Initiative, SAI Platform and others, and are investing billions to promote regenerative agriculture practices.

In short, growing the same stuff the same way is not likely to be a viable future strategy.

That’s not a dictate of ideology - it’s a reflection of trade realities and coming to terms with nature.

As we rebuild coming out of Cyclone Gabrielle, this more holistic and long-range perspective must guide our planning, policies and actions.

Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust (HBFFT) provides farmers with information on exemplary land management systems that deliver improved environmental outcomes while also providing greenhouse gas mitigation options for landowners.

We also educate individual farmers and growers via their sector groups and make direct contact through workshops and on-farm field days.

The HBFFT website has information on our first large Ministry for Primary Industries-funded project, for which Heinz and McCains have joined us along with Landwise in the six-year Carbon Positive demonstration trial at the Landwise MicroFarm.

Overall, our work will build evidence of the benefits of restoring soil health while growing permanent crops, arable crops or pasture.

Phil Schofield is a soil scientist and chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust.