Nuffield 2020 Reports

Change is a certain component of the future of New Zealand agriculture, the opportunity is to make it a positive experience that applauds and embraces innovation and encourages personal stewardship while minimising regulation.

There are multiple stakeholders with various views of the world and we currently have no clear framework to understand what is going on around us. A better understanding of how we need to adapt and organise ourselves, will better position leaders to make changes.

With a climate crisis, increasingly diversified agri-businesses, interest in regenerative agriculture and increasing membership of catchment groups, coupled with generational change and economic reform, now is the right time for structural change to New Zealand Agriculture.

The tension between science-led and consumer-led research and development is unavoidable. There is a need for both. Successful consumer-led innovation directly produces economic value. Science for the sake of obtaining knowledge leads indirectly to economic, social, and environmental benefits.

The future is positioning our produce in high end, affluent markets that demand, ethically and environmentally friendly products going away from volume favoured markets to values driven markets. This takes a mindset shift from farmers.