Friday, March 29, 2024

Tool to boost hill country health

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The wellbeing of hill country farmers is at the heart of the new FarmSalus tool.
The first reduction will come from the retirement of low-productive hill country out of sheep and beef, says Keith Woodford – affecting up to 1 million hectares and reducing methane emissions by more than 5%. File photo
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An innovative farmer wellbeing assessment tool for hill country farmers will help understand and monitor the human component of farming.  

FarmSalus, launched in August, is part of the $8.1 million Hill Country Futures (HCF) programme focused on future-proofing the profitability, sustainability and wellbeing of New Zealand’s hill country farmers, their farm systems, the environment and rural communities.

The wellbeing of hill country farmers is at the heart of the new FarmSalus tool developed by the HCF partnership programme, which includes the Ministry for Primary Industries and Nature Positive, and is facilitated by Beef + Lamb NZ.

BLNZ sector science strategy manager Suzanne Keeling said the scene is changing for New Zealand sheep and beef farmers with society’s expectations around food production transparency, environmental sustainability and climate change obligations all affecting farmers’ livelihoods.

In response to the needs articulated by programme end-users, the focus of the FarmSalus assessment tool is on measures relating to healthy farmers.

“It is a tool to help understand and monitor the human component of farming.

“This includes farmers’ health and wellbeing as well as the aspects of farm business and the farm environment that may influence farmers’ health and wellbeing,” Keeling said.

She said FarmSalus has been designed for rural professionals and farmer group facilitators to support their conversations with farmers about farmer wellbeing and how this affects the resilience of their farm business and environment.

“A healthy farmer and healthy farm business overlap as do a healthy farmer and a healthy farm.”  

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FarmSalus fills a gap in the existing toolkit that is available to rural professional and facilitators. There are a lot of tools and surveys to measure economic or environmental success, but there is little around to monitor the health and wellbeing of the farmers themselves, Keeling said.

FarmSalus considers all aspects of the farm system and how these affect farmer health. 

The tool consists of a survey that takes about 30 minutes to complete and is accompanied by training resources for facilitators.

FarmSalus was designed to assist meaningful discussion between farmers and their advisors rather than be a detailed tick-box list.

“The point of difference in this tool is its origin, taking in the interviews of farmers with the genesis and inception based on the interviews.”

FarmSalus has been designed for rural professionals and farmer group facilitators to support their conversations with farmers, BLNZ sector science strategy manager Suzanne Keeling says. Photo: Supplied

The social research team, Nature Positive and BLNZ conducted 170 face-to-face interviews with almost 300 farmers, rural professionals, academics and industry leaders throughout NZ.

The process of completing the FarmSalus survey enables farmers to identify their own personal values and assess whether their farming practices and lifestyle are meeting these.

From this, farmers can identify which areas of their farming system are impacting the most on their own personal wellbeing and sense of resilience.

“It was empowering to hear farmers’ passion and pride for their community, their land and their animals,” Keeling said.

“The challenges highlighted included regulation and the costs involved, and farm succession.

“This is about the voices of farmers with a real sense of ownership and a direct link back to farmers actually involved, having their say and not just being told what to do,” Keeling said.  

FarmSalus was developed in response to a need identified by hill country farmers and was co-designed by the Hill Country Futures team and farmers, external industry groups, individuals and agricultural consultants. 

The overarching HCF programme is co-funded by BLNZ, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, PGG Wrightson Seeds and Seed Force NZ. 

Keeling said the plan is to roll FarmSalus out to the full spectrum of primary producers.

The Agri Women’s Development Trust is currently piloting two of the programmes with promotion now the focus for the FarmSalus programme team.

“It will only have value if we get wide adoption, so the focus now is to promote widely to farming groups and stakeholder organisations.”   

BLNZ’s five-year multidisciplinary research programme, the HCF programme, ends at the end of 2022. 

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