Strong leadership needed in agriculture, says CAAV

Good businesses are not dependant on what the Government tells them to do, but instead on the skills, investment decisions and innovation of their owners, says Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser to the CAAV. Speaking at the CAAV conference he highlighted the industry potential if the right people are given access to land.

“There is an important change to come for small and medium sized landowners through de-linking support payments and this will provide an opportunity for new or existing land managers to develop forward-thinking and productive businesses to combat today’s issues.”

Education is a key element of building a better society and should be a vital tool in combating climate change – something valuers are playing a role in. Though it’s only possible to make informed guesses about the future, the mitigation of and adaption to climate change should be a key part of knowledge exchange, said Victoria Edwards, CEO at the Ernest Cook Trust.

“We need to think more on a community level how we equip people with the capability to deal with the future rather than specific knowledge. In our attempts to tackle climate change, we need to put efforts into improving the welfare of the entire nation and that goes hand in hand with education.”

But the industry is already adapting to combat the climate issue, as Rob Sanders, co-founder at Glas Data outlined. Properly collecting and using data can catch disasters before they happen – allowing for farmers to be proactive and not reactive, he said.