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Climate change policy and the Emissions Trading Scheme has topped the list of farmers’ biggest concerns for the first time since 2010, according to Federated Farmers’ latest Farm Confidence Survey.
Nearly a quarter of the 1432 farmers who responded to the survey last month said it was their number one worry. The second greatest concern was regulation and compliance costs (19%), followed by debt, interest and banks (10%).
“That result is hardly surprising, given analysis coming through that significant numbers of dairy and sheep and beef farms will be uneconomic if the government continues to pursue methane reduction targets that are far more stringent than are necessary to ensure there is no additional global warming,” Federated Farmers economics spokesperson Andrew Hoggard says.
The July survey, conducted by Research First, found that the proportion of farmers who consider current general economic conditions to be good (24.9%) has decreased slightly over the last six months. All regions expect farm production to increase over the coming 12 months, but they are mostly less optimistic than six months ago, with large falls in expectations for Auckland-Northland and Taranaki-Manawatu.
