Collecting and sharing data across farms will allow farmers to better understand their performance, make informed decisions, improve production and the environmental outcomes.

Programmes include

• Knowledge Hub and Farm Benchmarks – Beef + Lamb NZ
• Better Data – MPI
• Step Change – DairyNZ.

Better Data

MPI's programme visited and collected financial, physical, and environmental data for 340 farms in the 2020/21 financial year. The plan for 2022 is to visit 800 more pastoral and arable farms to develop and improve the database. This helps better understand farm performance and the impacts of policy changes.

Step Change

DairyNZ has established the Step Change project, operational across all major dairy regions. They help farmers calculate their environmental footprint and compare their profitability and sustainability with one another. More than 1000 farmers are  participating in 2022.

Farmers play a core role in reducing agricultural emissions and helping achieve New Zealand’s climate change targets.

If empowered to measure, manage, and reduce on-farm emissions, farmers can increase sequestration on farms and plan for a changing climate. 

He Waka eke Noa

He Waka eke Noa is the climate action partnership to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the primary sector. The Partnership is working on a GHG reporting and pricing system to come into effect from 2024.

The following organisations are supporting farmers and participating to He Waka eke Noa efforts:

• NZ Wine & Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand
• Beef + Lamb NZ 
• HortNZ.

They contribute to policy discussions, collect information on emissions, provide workshops for farmers, and develop tools to calculate emissions.

Over 50% of farmers know their greenhouse gas emission numbers in 2022.

NZGAP and Zespri GAP GHG farm plans are recognised by He Waka Eke Noa, with action plans. 70% of growers have a GAP GHG Farm Plan.