Emissions plan will sound death knell for farmers - Mayor

He says farmers like himself were already being treated like second class citizens and this proposal reinforces that.

“It takes away all hope,” he told Rural News.

Little says farmers are now talking about selling up and going to Australia where he says agriculture is booming.

He says it’ll be the case of selling land to carbon farmers who he says just “plant and run”.

He says in the last few years, up to 20,000 hectares of productive land has been lost to forestry and that farming offers a lot more jobs that forestry.

“Our community relies on farming, big time; tourism is great but farming is the one that supports business in the town,” he says.

“There is a risk that, if this proposal goes ahead, the local freezing works could go and that is a big employer of Māori people. This proposal has the potential to kill everything and rural NZ will be gone,” he says.

Little says he and other rural mayors have discussed the latest government proposal and will make a submission during the consultation period.

For his part, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor claims the vast majority of the HWEN recommendations have been accepted, but there are some issues he says will need to be worked through to make sure the scheme is cost effective for farmers.

He says there will be an ability during the consultation to sort out problems and says government is open to suggestions, while admitting the proposal is “not exact”.

“But clearly if people were hoping this was never going to come to fruition and that it wasn’t going to be implemented, they have not been dealing with the world we live in, and that is one of facing the ever-increasing impacts of climate,” he says.

Claims are being made that the proposal will see more pine trees planted. But O’Connor says, while there will be some new plantings and that NZ might end up with mixed farm systems, there will be more small plantings within farm systems.

“So yes, there will be more trees, but trees in the right place is really what we are seeking rather than whole farm conversions,” he says.

A question remains as to whether there will be strict rules around this.

In terms of the dairy sector, O’Connor says there may be some land changes, which he says has been part and parcel of agriculture for years, and that new opportunities will emerge.

“It’s hard to know how this will play out on dairy farms because every one is different and runs different farm systems.

“But dairy farmers have been adapting over many years and some will know their carbon and environmental footprints and are already making great progress – that will continue. For its part, government will step in with more knowledge options and work alongside farmers, especially in the dry stock sector where there are issues,” he says.