Originally published:1984-10 as Discussion paper (Lincoln College (University of Canterbury). Agricultural Economics Research Unit) ; no. 87. by Agricultural Economics Research Unit, Lincoln College.
Farming is an industry which depends on the work, decisions and
competence of a large number of individual farmers, each of them running
their own farm business. These business units vary widely in the resources
at their disposal and in the volume and type of production which is
generated from these resources. In New Zealand particularly, the energies
and decisions of farmers are essential to the well being of the entire
national economy.
While a great deal of statistical data is published on the farming
sector, there has been relatively little emphasis on the present structure
and the changes of the individual farm business. In view of the complex
nature of the ordinary farm, it is difficult to present the full picture in
terms of the economic character of all the farms in New Zealand. Yet,
unless this picture is complete, it is not possible to assess the future of
the farming sector and of the various factors which will determine that
future.
It is the purpose of this study to evaluate the New Zealand farming
sector in terms of the changes in the basic economic nature of the
individual farms themselves. The study is based on published data, most of
which are derived from the detailed Agricultural Census returns which are
completed by New Zealand farmers, together with the data in the Population
Census results. It is inevitable that such a vast body of information,
involving initially over 1 million pages of farm information, completed by
over 70,000 people should lead to some difficulties of interpretation and
considerable problems of distilling this vast amount of figures into a
manageable and comprehensive form. In spite of these difficulties, the
available statistics provide a considerable insight into the current
economic developments on New Zealand farms.[Show full abstract]
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