Maniototo sheep, beef and arable farmer and Federated Farmers (FF) Otago arable chair Emma Crutchley named five priorities for policy for Central Otago farmers in The Outlet podcast yesterday (Friday July 7).

FF recently released their roadmap of 12 policy priorities to restore farmer confidence and Emma’s interview touched on many of them.

“This low confidence is not just a primary sector thing… we are seeing amazing rates of change across the world, and across our country and there's people experiencing hardship not only in the primary sector, but also health and education,” she said.

“Everyone's feeling the impacts of that pace of change. But in the primary sector, we are… 45 billion export value in 2022, and I know that went up again this last year, but we're seeing the results from surveys that Federated Farmers have done have shown a negative 65 percent rating on farming confidence.”

Emma’s top five priorities for Central Otago farmers were access to fresh water, getting control back to communities, getting labour back onto farms, methane targets and freshwater rules. 

She said there has been a “really negative narrative” around the use of freshwater in farming during the past few years.

“[Freshwater irrigation] creates resilience, it's our key for adaption to change … actually having access to fresh water when we need it the most. And it's also food security as well. It's part of those local food systems and arable production that… grows food for Kiwis.”

Farming and arable crops are key for food security for New Zealanders

Emma catches up with the broader FF executive three or four times a year. Part of her role is to be involved in national discussions and advocacy for farmers from her district.