KEY POINTS:
Federated Farmers says it wants farmers to commit to reduce "nutrient losses" such as effluent run-off from paddocks by 10 per cent over the next decade.
President Charlie Pedersen launched the "10 in 10" campaign at Federated Farmers' national council meeting in Wellington today, suggesting this would represent the direction in which farmers were heading.
"We have, are, and will continue to do our share to improve the environment," he said.
Mr Pedersen said farmers cared about the environment and worried about the downstream effects of farming, but did not need to feel too embarrassed, as cities and towns "modify and influence the environment far more than farms ever have".
He said nutrient loss from farms seemed to spark the most debate when water quality was being discussed.
Environmental critics of farmers have blamed run-off from the urine and faeces from dairy cows for lowland water pollution - and increasing incidence in some regions of diseases which cause diarrhoea, including cryptosporidium and salmonella.
And the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Morgan Williams, has called for a total redesign of New Zealand farming systems because rapid expansion in farmers' use of nitrogen fertilisers, increased stocking rates, and increased irrigation are threatening New Zealand's soils and freshwater.
New Zealand's existing forage systems are already at the limit of their productive potential, and the increasing intensification is increasing pressure on the environment, with degraded water quality, increasing nitrification of soils and groundwater, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to Mr Williams.
In March 2007 the Government expects a report on whether a potentially powerful regulatory tool should be created: a national policy statement on nutrients and microbial contaminants and sediment.
Today, Mr Pedersen said it made economic sense for farmers to reduce the loss of inputs from their farms and to efficiently convert nutrients and energy into products to sell.
Farmers could keep stock from waterways and wetlands, budget nutrient applications as animal effluent and fertiliser, use nitrogen inhibitors to slow the leaching of nitrates from soils into ground water and waterways.
But Mr Pedersen noted it would be a "challenge" to measure nutrient loss and said the federation would be looking to local and central government to develop better monitoring.
"Critics will say that 10 per cent is not enough, and 10 years is too long," he said.
"Let them talk while we act. Farming will have moved towards further reducing its impact on the environment, while our detractors sit in their ivory towers and talk."
Mr Pedersen challenged environmentalists to identify other affordable ways for farmers to reduce the environmental impacts of their activities, but warned: "Capping agricultural productivity is unthinkable".
Prime Minister Helen Clark said Federated Farmers' idea was a "great start" and that it highlighted the necessity for sustainable agriculture to avoid imposition of environmental barriers to NZ trade.
But Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said the farmers need to set more ambitious targets if they wanted to make significant improvements.
"A target of just 1 per cent reduction a year is not trying hard enough - and is going to see very little improvement in environmental terms," he said.
Aiming for a 10 per cent reduction in five years would be a much more meaningful target.
- NZPA
