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Summary
- Another drought in some parts of upper northern NZ may put farmers under strain.
- The anticipated drought could lead to reduced productivity and profitability depending upon the financial capacity of a farmer.
- As per Ministry for Primary Industries, farmers need to put a plan in place ahead of the drought.
New Zealand farmers may be in for another drought in upper northern parts, mostly north of Taupo. This is likely to put a lot of strain on the farmers.
Drought conditions forecasted
The farmers are still dealing with Hawke Bay’s drought losses of this year. The new year might witness another draught in other parts of upper northern New Zealand. According to weather forecast these regions will have a below normal rain in the month of January.
While farmers were expecting La Nina rainfall to change the dry spell situation, weather news are filled with long-term forecast for the month of January, laying emphasis that no doubt, the presence of La Nina was becoming more obvious than before, it is unlikely that the pressure on Northern Island will have much impact on the upper north New Zealand. This will lead to dry spells in these areas, which has already seen two years of below-normal rainfall.
If at all there will be rain it will be sparse and the farmers may need more than two rain spells to start getting out of the situation.
Negative impact on farmers
A study by NZ based Motu Economic and Public Policy Research institute found that droughts have a big impact on livestock farmers. However, the study points out that the big capacity farmers are still resilient to the impact. It’s the small farmers that get hit really hard.
From the point of view of sheep/beef dairy farmers, droughts lead to larger expenditure on feed for their livestock leading to reduced productivity and profitability.
If the farmers make less income, then their ability to pay off their debts is reduced. And if the farmers’ have less financial capacity to finance their activities, the drought can have severe impact on their lives, and this can flow through into downstream production and other sectors and impact the whole economy.
Weather reports further said that while weather is moving towards drought like conditions and it is up to the government to officially declare a drought in such areas.
Farmers advised to plan before the drought
In this scenario, farmers are being asked to have a plan in place to make sure their animals are well looked after in the coming months.
Dr Chris Rodwell, veterinarian and director for animal health under the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said that the summer of 2020 has been very tough for the farmers and the 2021 summer could also be the same.
He said the farmers themselves need to have a plan in place to guard their livestock and the MPI is organising food coordination and feed planning services.
