Agriculture
Recent Deposits
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Evaluation of a dairy agri-environmental programme for restoring woody green infrastructure
Pastoral landscape woody vegetation provides ecosystem services, but potentially competes for space, light and nutrients that could provide additional farm production. A questionnaire determined the values and behaviours ... -
Are Organic Standards Sufficient to Ensure Sustainable Agriculture? Lessons From New Zealand’s ARGOS and Sustainability Dashboard Projects
Our review concludes that organic standards need to account for a broader set of criteria in order to retain claims to ‘sustainability’. Measurements of the ecological, economic and social outcomes from over 96 ... -
When experts disagree: the need to rethink indicator selection for assessing sustainability of agriculture
Sustainability indicators are well recognized for their potential to assess and monitor sustainable development of agricultural systems. A large number of indicators are proposed in various sustainability assessment ... -
Effects of stock type, irrigation and effluent dispersal on earthworm species composition, densities and biomasses in New Zealand pastures
We investigated the effects of grazing stock, irrigation and effluent dispersal on earthworm species compositions, densities and biomasses in 615 locations across 41 farms in the Waitaki Basin, New Zealand, between April ... -
The Forgotten 60%: bird ecology and management in New Zealand's agricultural landscape.
Production lands make up 58% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s landcover and contribute greatly not only to the national economy but also to patterns and trends in native and introduced avian biodiversity. However, unlike in native ... -
New Zealand Farmer Attitude and Opinion Survey 2008: Management systems and farming sustainability
The survey results presented in this report are part of ongoing research on New Zealand farmers and how they respond to changes and issues related to the sustainability of primary production. The survey assessed how farmers ... -
Recalling management changes in the New Zealand kiwifruit sector as response to external and internal drivers: preliminary analysis of ARGOS retrospective interviews
This report presents a descriptive driver-and-response-based perspective at the family farm level. It focuses on the impacts of and the response to external and internal stress factors over the last 40 years, drawing on ... -
Resilience in retrospective: analysis of response to shocks and stress in the New Zealand kiwifruit and sheep and beef sectors
Sustainability forms a key concept within the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) project. Since the project was initiated in 2004, however, sustainability has been exposed to increasing scrutiny as an ... -
Policy Approaches to Environmental Practice in Agriculture: a review of international literature and recommendations for application in New Zealand
The New Zealand agriculture sector is facing ever growing demands that it produce verifiable environmental benefits. These demands raise the pressures on farmers to adopt and follow sound practices and technologies. This ... -
The conventions of agri-environmental practice in New Zealand: farmers, retail driven audit schemes and a new spirit of farming
Audit schemes dictating the parameters of environmentally and socially acceptable management practice have emerged as a pervasive feature of global agri-food production. While the impacts of such schemes on the global ... -
Intensification of New Zealand agriculture: Implications for biodiversity
Intensification of New Zealand agricultural practices is an ongoing and accelerating process which potentially threatens the environment, biodiversity and even the sustainability of agricultural production. However, neither ... -
Assessing a farm's sustainability: insights from resilience thinking
Research on sustainability in agriculture often focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of production systems. However, environmentally friendly production methods may not be sufficient to ensure the long-term economic ... -
Effects of organic farming, fencing and vegetation origin on spiders and beetles within shelterbelts on dairy farms
Spiders and beetles provide important ecosystem services in agriculture; however, optimum strategies to promote their density and diversity on dairy farms have received little attention. This study aimed to quantify the ... -
Abundance and diversity of herbaceous weeds in sheep/beef pastures, South Island, New Zealand
This study compared species diversity, abundance and size of broad-leaved herbaceous weeds on 28 South Island sheep/beef farms that employed either organic, integrated management (IM) or conventional management (CM) systems. ... -
Recent Developments in Organic Food Production in New Zealand: Part 4: The Expansion of Organic Food Production in Nelson and Golden Bay
This report presents the fourth and final case study in a program of research on the changes within organic production in key regional areas of New Zealand. The four reports are the results of a body of research funded by ... -
The Development of Organic Horticultural Exports in New Zealand
The following report presents a summary of findings from a series of publications arising from the FRST Public Good Science Fund programme ‘Optimum Development of Certified Organic Horticulture in New Zealand’. This research ... -
Strategies for 'Greening' the New Zealand Pipfruit Export Industry: The Development of IFP and Organic Systems
This report provides an introduction to New Zealand’s pipfruit industry, and a review of different attempts within the industry to produce fruit which has an enhanced environmental or ‘food safety’ profile. While the New ...