Federated Farmers: Making the farmer's view count

Mark Ross, General manager, policy and advocacy

In the formation of good agricultural policy it is important that the farmer viewpoint is fully considered. Too often local and central government makes policy that doesn't fit the end user, i.e. the farmer, but is more aligned to back office analysts' view on the world (who have never fleeced a sheep).

Creating policy in isolation, without actively seeking feedback from the target audience, is not healthy. This is where Federated Farmers has a key leadership role to play by ensuring that the decision-makers in government create the right outcomes for the continuation of profitable and sustainable farming.

To achieve this we provide support for farmers, promotion of agriculture as New Zealand's most important industry and delivery of superb policy advice.

It is critical that the farmer's voice is heard and Federated Farmers constantly seeks feedback from its members through surveys, workshops, farm visits, emails and other communication tools, including Twitter. This feedback feeds into our policy system, with the overall goal of providing sensible and practical input into policy development. We measure our success through policy gains, for example, positive changes to legislation, lower rate bills or dropping of proposed regulations.

Of interest in the past year, Federated Farmers has made 73 national submissions, 84 annual plan submissions, more than 240 submissions to regional councils on plan changes, provided representation on 70 working and technical groups, and worked on more than 300 active issues.

In addition to this, various proactive campaigns have been launched around drought recovery, health and safety, biosecurity and water. It's a lot to cover, but making sure the farmer's voice is heard guarantees policy will be fit for purpose, rather than heading for the scrap heap.

Lobbying for the 'best possible business environment' for our members is one of our core goals, hence our high work rate.

As a policy team of 26 analysts we can't do this in isolation, so having the view of the farmer is something we actively seek. Working as a 'team agriculture' allows for success and, in most cases, sensible policy from government.