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The Green Party is warned that a tax on fertilizers is not a solution for more sustainable agriculture.
The Greens unveiled their agricultural policy in Canterbury over the weekend, where the party announced plans to impose sales of nitrogen fertilizers and phosphorous.
They also want to establish a nearly $ 300 million fund for the transition to organic and regenerative agriculture.
Environmental consultant Dave Ashby runs a dairy farm in North Canterbury.
Keeping animals fenced off, planting along banks, and adding oxygen grass are just a few of the steps you take to keep your waterways clean.
To show how clean the water is in his artificial drain, he took a handful and drank it.
“So this takes all the water off my dairy farm and I drank it right in front of you,” he said.
He said farmers were working hard to farm more sustainably, especially through agricultural environmental plans (EFFs).
“The plans are now more diverse, not only include irrigation, nutrients and soils and the management of animal effluents, but also include things like water use, biodiversity and also provision for mahinga kai and others. cultural needs “.
Ashby said that in Canterbury those plans (FEP) are then audited.
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Green Party co-leader James Shaw. (Photo / RNZ)
But on Saturday the Greens announced their plan to make farms more environmentally friendly.
Co-leader James Shaw said the party planned to introduce a $ 297 million fund over three years to support farmers in organic or regenerative agriculture.
“The dairy sector itself knows about and is working with other sectors and with the government to provide this transition towards more sustainable forms of agriculture that have less greenhouse gas emissions and less nitrogen in our soils and in our waters.
“A lot of this came from them saying, look, we want to be the solution here, but people need the support and that’s what we are trying to do,” he said.
But with the carrot comes the stick.
The party plans to pay for that fund in part using $ 33.9 million raised through a tax on nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers.
The tax will be 2 cents per kilo, which, depending on the party, would cost the average dairy farm $ 1,515 a year.
But Ashby said that would not make agriculture more sustainable.
“A better thing to do instead of a tax is to benefit farmers to help them complete agricultural environmental plans and maintain those plans.
“An agricultural environment plan, in my opinion, is the vehicle for change, an additional tax on farmers will create more pressure on farmers and create another layer of cost for the agricultural industry,” he said.
The Greens’ policy also included a limit for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) in waterways of 1 mg per liter.
He would also like to progressively reduce the application of nitrogen fertilizers to the national average of 150 kg per hectare in two years.
National Party agriculture spokesman David Bennett said the Greens’ proposed nitrogen limits and the tax would be devastating for farmers, in particular the dairy industry.
“At a time when we need agricultural exports more than at any other time because of what has happened with Covid and the borders, the Green Party wants to roll back agriculture 100 years.
“That will really limit our ability to sustain the economy in very difficult times,” he said.
Bennett said the policy was a slap in the face for farmers.
– RNZ
