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Auditing for good: dairying, environmental auditing and the 'good farmer' in the Amuri Environmental Collective: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Natural Resource Management and Ecological Engineering at Lincoln University

McCorkindale, Claire
Date
2019
Type
Thesis
Fields of Research
ANZSRC::050205 Environmental Management , ANZSRC::050206 Environmental Monitoring , ANZSRC::070106 Farm Management, Rural Management and Agribusiness
Abstract
Canterbury is one of New Zealand’s main regions for dairy production and has undergone considerable intensification in recent times, with increased areas of irrigated land, stocking rates and inputs. Key concerns surrounding the intensification of farming practices include declining flow rates in water bodies and the deterioration of water quality. In the Hurunui-Waiau region the Amuri Irrigation Company (AIC) has registered a voluntary collective scheme, which became operative in December 2014. Under the scheme, each farm is audited based on an individual Farm Environment Plan, which sets out specific targets that need to be met. If a farmer owns multiple farms, each farm is audited separately. Individual audits for each farm are carried out by AIC and grades from A to D are awarded based on the environmental performance. Since the introduction of this scheme there has been an improvement in auditing grades, indicating a change in environmental management practices implemented by the farmers under the scheme. There has also been increasing public and regulatory pressure on farmers to mitigate negative environmental impacts from agricultural production. This research investigates whether the shift in management practices to meet the audit criteria is associated with a change in farmers’ identity and, more specifically, how they define being a ‘good farmer’. Twelve farmers and five stakeholders were interviewed and their responses indicated that there has been a significant increase in environmental awareness within the farming community since the environmental collective started, which has led to a shift in farmer identity and how farmers define what it is to be a good farmer.