Feeding the world’s growing population
New Zealand’s reputation as a quality food producer is growing.
The Fertiliser Association of New Zealand promotes and encourages responsible and scientifically-based nutrient management.
Planting forest to sequester carbon, either for carbon farming or directly offsetting farm emissions, is likely to increase, a new study from AgFirst, Groundtruth and Market Economics shows.
There are strong financial drivers for the increase. Traditional sheep and beef hill country returns 2-5% on capital invested, whereas carbon farming (when priced at $65/t) will give returns of three to five times this amount.
The research report, Forestry on Farms: Implications for Farm Sustainability and Regional Impact, highlights wide concern that the social and economic impact of these changes could be significant.
At an on-farm level the integration of forestry could strengthen the farm business, as well as providing carbon credits to offset GHG emissions from the farm. At a wider regional or national level impacts would include a reduction in pastoral production, processing capacity or exports. This would be offset by increased income generated by carbon credits, and eventual timber sales.
This analysis has explored the likely macro-economic impacts by considering three scenarios:
The study was commissioned by the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand with the aim of:
Representative case study examples, assessed 10%, 30% or 100% of the farm area being planted into three forestry types. The impacts were assessed at both farm and regional levels for Northland, Hawke’s Bay, and the rest of the North Island.
Download a summary of the report here or the full report here.
The Fertiliser Association of New Zealand and Dairy NZ funded development of the Nutrient Management Adviser Certification Programme (NMACP). This industry-wide certification aims to ensure that advisers have the learning, experience and capability to give sound nutrient advice.
28 June 2023
Dairy farmers milking cows on a farm area of more than 20 hectares are required to record synthetic nitrogen use on their dairy platform land, including a zero-kg record if no synthetic nitrogen is used. The regulations require data to be submitted by 31 July each year for the preceding year ended 30 June.
14 May 2023
The New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research has published a paper titled Nitrogen fertiliser use in grazed pasture-based systems in New Zealand. The research paper was commissioned by the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand and written by AgReserch senior scientist Colin Gray.
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