Economic Tools

Evidence gathered by four separate Our Land and Water research programmes has found that food shoppers in New Zealand’s key export markets do value attributes produced by responsible farming. A new plain-language Research Findings Brief summarises this research.

Fate Factors (FFs) for use in life-cycle analysis (PCA) were developed for both dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), distinguishing emissions from soil and emissions to freshwater. The use of these FFs, in conjunction with a spatially explicit inventory of DIN and DIP emissions, improves the environmental relevance and discriminatory power of the assessment of freshwater eutrophication impacts for LCA applications internationally.

The Kohuratia website provides agribusiness and farms in Aotearoa New Zealand with a snapshot of their current constraints and opportunities. Enter data about your organisation's values, current performance, capabilities and capacity, and the tool generates a series of priority actions that will help optimise economic, social and environmental outcomes. Kohuratia was developed for Māori agribusiness but can be used for any farm and has been tested with Pakehā farmers.

Exporters and agri-food marketers can use this meta-analysis (combining the results of 94 other studies) to learn how much more consumers are willing to pay for attributes such as organic dairy (36% more, for this example). This analysis found that Australasian consumers value red meat products with credence attributes the highest, followed by Asian, European and North American consumers. As for dairy products, willingness-to-pay is highest in the Asian market, followed by the EU and the North America.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods have previously estimated freshwater eutrophication impacts from phosphorus only. Eutrophication Product Footprinting research developed a method to account for the contribution of nitrogen as well.

The Indicators Working Group produced this proof-of-concept dataset for 4 rural towns in New Zealand, demonstrating the possibility of hosting research data for general access on a public data repository. This data presents indicators related to the resilience of rural communities (Dannevirke, Huntly, Taumaruniu and Te Kuiti), collected from publicly available official statistics and surveys.

A stocktake of existing work on agri-environmental indicators relevant for Our Land and Water was completed by the Indicators Working Group. Some of these focus on environmental linkages, while others focus on economic and production data. The projects listed cover Government projects, industry projects and science projects.

The Matrix of Drivers provides market intelligence and foresight into consumer trends and international agreements. Industry bodies can use this research to assess the magnitude of drivers affecting their sector (eg climate change, plant-based protein trends), anticipate change, and assist producers to adapt. Primary sector producers and entrepreneurs can use The Matrix to meet market demands or seek out new high-value, low-footprint opportunities, and avoid lurching from one trend to the next. See table 3.1 in the report.

Our Integrating Value Chains research has developed online tools to access and analyse results of consumer surveys in California and Shanghai about consumer behaviour, preferences, technology use, understanding of Māori enterprise, and country of origin preferences.