Last week I joined over 300 delegates from 28 countries across the World at the International Farm Management Association (IFMA) congress held in Methven, Canterbury. The focus of the week's congress was 'Thriving in a Global Market' through innovation, co-operation and leadership. The event was hosted by Lincoln University, Massey University and ANZ Bank, with three days of plenary session's and presentations from some of the World's leading speakers within the agricultural sector. A large focus of the week was on tackling the issue of feeding a growing population with reduced land area, and the challenges that face us in terms of global trade, managing resources such as land and water, succession planning to ensure that 'new blood' is coming into the industry, and how we can co-operate globally to meet the challenges that we now face.
The conference opened with a talk from Hon David Carter, NZ Minister of Agriculture who spoke about how New Zealand was transformed when subsidies were removed from agriculture overnight in 1985. He said that it was tough at the time and that some farmers didn't survive, but New Zealand agriculture is far better for it as it has had to focus more on production. His challenge to the delegates at the conference was to find a farmer in New Zealand who would want to go back to relying on Government subsidies. I have not come across one yet!
Two days were spent visiting farms in the Canterbury region, with a choice of six visits each day. To broaden my horizons I opted for a change, with one day focused on dairy farming and the other on arable. I will give a seperate overview on these visits and some key things that I took away from the congress over the coming week.
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