Arable farmers excel at what they do, but like farmers in all of New Zealand’s agrifood industries, they’re finding it more and more difficult to meet ever-increasing, and occasionally contradictory, regulatory, public and consumer demands around food production.
Safe food, wholesome food, ethically produced food, food produced in environmentally friendly systems and of course, affordable food. Can it be done? How?
What are the big issues for New Zealand’s cropping farmers today? What will they be in 10 years’ time? What’s being done to address them?
These are some of the questions that will be addressed at the 2019 FAR Conference, Research Leading Change.
The three sessions will cover Soil Water and Nutrients, Crop Protection and Innovation and Technology. Each session will reference some of the big issues facing arable farmers and their farms; issues such as nutrient management, climate change and agrichemical resistance. Each session will also outline some of the work that FAR and other organisations are undertaking in order to understand what is causing problems and how to find solutions.
Arable farmers know how to make the most of their businesses under the current climate and compliance conditions, but the goal posts will keep on shifting. Our job is to support growers now, while working to find solutions to emerging problems and issues.