Policy uncertainty concerns farmers

She told Rural News at the Feds recent conference in Wellington that farmers are concerned at the possible effects on their farms of the Zero Carbon Bill and water policies. 

They are worried about not knowing what they have to do and about how policies will impact on them, Milne said.

“We also don’t think the regulatory impacts and cost benefit analyses have been properly done on a lot of these things, in particular the flow on effects they will have.”

Milne sees the farming sector as flat at present despite commodity prices being pretty good. A key objective of the Feds conference was to try to help the public and decisionmakers to better understand farming.

Feds joined forces this year with a commercial conference organiser which staged the event at Te Papa Museum, Wellington. 

Their aim was to do something different and bring primary industries into Wellington to give attendees closer connections and enable collaboration and connections between politicians, academics, officials and agribusiness people. 

“It’s gone really well. Very good feedback from everybody shows this format has worked,” Milne said.