2 Method
2.1 Industry workshops
The industry workshops had two objectives:
- Primary objective: Identify, prioritise and quantify the risks and costs associated with the main behind-the-farm-gate constraints to conversion to organic production. The latter exercise required a number of assumptions because of gaps in current understanding of the efficacy of many alternative practices, lack of infrastructure, and uncertainty surrounding market and price signals for each sector. Two sets of organic production standards, BIO-GRO and a composite UK Soil Association/EU standard (CERTENZ), were used for the exercise.
- Secondary objective: Collect information on, and participants’ opinions about, the changes in the resource requirements and the potential changes in the attributes (e.g. environmental condition, etc) of the production system, both on- and off-site, resulting from widespread adoption of organic practices.
One workshop, comprising 14-20 producers and associated support sectors (e.g. consultants, agribusiness, research, etc), was held for each of the dairy, sheep and beef, deer and arable sectors. The farmer participants of each workshop were organic or conventional producers, some of whom had examined the organic option.
The workshops were held as follows:
Sheep and beef: held on 26 March 2001 in Palmerston North, and utilised some members of the North Island low chemical Focus Group. This group has examined the constraints to conversion to low chemical and organic production as part of a recently completed Meat New Zealand project.
Deer: held on 2 April 2001 in Dunedin, and focus on the Otago and Southland regions.
Arable (which includes cereals, small seeds and vegetables): held on 3 April 2001 in Canterbury and organised by Crop and Food Research.
Dairying: held on 10 April 2001 in the Waikato, and utilised members of the Waikato organic dairy group. This workshop was organised by Dexcel.
2.2 Output of workshops
1. A summary of the constraints, in priority order, along with quantitative data and information about each constraint for each sector.
Where hard data were not available, an effort was made to obtain participants’ estimates and opinions. This included participants’ opinions about necessary changes in policy to best meet the needs of an organic production system. Estimates of production and the likely effect of different quality assurance systems on productivity were assessed.
2. A list of the changes in the resource requirements and attributes of the production system, and off-site impacts following widespread conversion to organic production. Participants’ opinions were also obtained to complement any available hard data.
2.3 Financial analysis
The financial implications of the risks and costs associated with each of the major constraints identified in the workshops, on the performance and viability of an organic production unit was investigated using the MAF Farm Monitoring models (MAF, 2000). The expertise of the MAF Policy staff responsible for the Farm Monitoring model was utilised for each sector. Revenue calculations were done using current premiums and also using no premiums to reflect the situation during conversion. In the preparation of the final report further comment on the outputs from the financial analysis was sought from each of the workshop participants and from sector interests.
Output of analysis
The costs and associated risks of each of the major constraints were listed, and, where possible, quantified. They were then incorporated into a matrix to establish the relative weighting of the factors limiting the expansion of organic production in each sector.
Contact for Enquiries
Kay Brown
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0695
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0746
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