Fieldays hold out the begging bowl
OPINION: When someone says “we don’t want a handout, we need a hand up” it usually means they have both palms out and they want your money.
A statement from National Fieldays says nearly 17000 people attended day one of the four-day event.
“We’ve had just under 17,000 visitors through the gate, which is a bit softer than previous years, but not unexpected due to the weather across the North Island,” says Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation.
With the weather set to improve for the remainder of the event, organisers are looking forward to three more days of agricultural trade, entertainment and innovations.
“From here on in, we should expect strong numbers from around the regions, reflecting our importance as a nationally and globally significant event,” says Nation.
He adds that early reports from some exhibiting customers are that the calibre and level of enquires has been strong from serious customers and outstripped previous opening days.
“We all know we’ve had a few head winds; changes keep coming and we are all grappling with the new normal.
“Fieldays has not been unaffected to the effects of Covid 19 either”, says Nation.
The decision to move from June to November was not made lightly.
“The rural sector is really facing a lot of challenges at the moment,” he says.
“We have navigated not only the seasonal nature of the primary industries in New Zealand but also navigating other major events.”
The event was officially opened with a pōwhiri and the rising of flags, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by the society’s president, James Allen, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor, and cut by Tumuaki o te Kiingitanga Hone Thompson.
Addressing some of the key challenges was Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. She joined the primary leaders luncheon, with O’Connor, launching the Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions.
Part of the 2022 budget, the announcement discussed the government’s plan on reducing agriculture emissions through research and development, including a substantial new public private 50:50 joint venture.
The three-phase project described investments into biotech to develop methane inhibiting capsules to deliver at least a 70% reduction in methane, supporting our sheep farmers to reduce emissions by increasing supply of low methane rams through genetic selection, introducing more low methane traits into the national sheep flock and thirdly investing in greenhouse gas measurement equipment and infrastructure.
