Reducing emissions, diversifying crops and improving efficiency were the common themes at this year's CROPS expo.

Hundreds turned up to the Foundation for Arable Research’s (FAR) Chertsey research site on Wednesday to lap up research findings and new farming methods.

FAR’S chief executive Alison Stewart said the biggest challenge for the sector was profitability.

“The agricultural sector is primarily a domestic-focused industry.

“It means that whenever there is an increase in cost - and costs are going up all the time - we’re not getting the value out at the other end, so it’s just eating into profitability.”

She said that like most agricultural groups, it was hard to plan for the future.

The best thing farmers could do was be prepared for losses and opportunities as they came.

To help make that resourcing easier, FAR, United Wheatgrowers New Zealand and Federated Farmers worked together to produce the ‘Future Fields’ growth strategy.

It was shared with those at the CROPS event ahead of an official launch in Wellington.

“All we can do is provide our growers with the confidence and skills to respond to opportunities that come along, and to be able to overcome challenges that come their way,” Stewart said.

“How can we make sure that we produce something at the cheapest cost, maintaining quality with the best environmental footprint?

“That’s what the day’s talks are all about.”

Researchers and farmers alike spoke throughout the day on herbicide reduction, seed selection and greenhouse gases.

FAR senior environmental researcher and North Island manager Dirk Wallace talked about the requirements around emissions and how they’re changing.

“We’ve moved from a regulatory environment to a market-led environment, where markets are asking what our emissions are.”

He said while it’s never a farmers’ passion to reduce emissions, it’s become a necessity.

“There’s definitely been a different attitude when it comes to market access and market-driven conversations, as opposed to regulation-driven conversations.”

“And familiarity means it's less intimidating.”

The expo was a chance to talk about those complicated subjects, and see how FAR’s experiments have gone over the year.

Their ‘Future Farm’ testing patch, which had received less fertiliser and agrichemicals, produced less emissions than conventional farming.

Wallace said it can be tricky to find time to test and research amongst other farming responsibilities, so said to just try making small adjustments.

“All the farmers are doing a great job, some of the stuff they do intuitively anyway.”

Consumer recognition of the arable industry was a big point on the agenda heading into 2024.

“I imagine the majority of folks don’t know where their flour comes from.

“That’s one of the things we want to get to with the arable strategy, is around getting recognition for what’s produced locally.”

Stewart echoed that sentiment and said while it wasn’t the government's place to raise that awareness, it had to start somewhere.

“What we want is for people to say ‘I would like bread that’s been made from New Zealand wheat,' to support New Zealand farmers.”

By Anisha Satya