View Our Strategy Document 2019 – 2024
November 02, 2023
Incentives for Change
We want to reward New Zealand’s primary producers for producing high-value products in sustainable ways.
Science Theme Leader
Dr Bill Kaye-Blake, NZIER
New Zealand earned $42 billion from primary sector exports in 2018, with overseas consumers paying about 6 times that amount for our country’s produce. How can we capture more of this value, and share it with our farmers and growers?
Incentives for Change researchers are gaining detailed understanding of what customers in different countries value about New Zealand produce, and designing production systems that measure and deliver these attributes. This will allow us to generate higher value for our exports.
To return a bigger share of this value to producers, Incentives for Change researchers are investigating the factors behind value chains, and designing mechanisms to reward sustainable practices and ngā āhuatanga Māori (Māori characteristics) more highly.
This will create environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits for all New Zealanders, build trust with domestic and international consumers, and incentivise primary producers to adopt the most suitable land uses.
Our Goal
We use our land and water to produce products with high value to consumers that we capture and share with producers. New value chains are distributing more value from consumers to producers, and more agribusinesses are using metrics that reward land practices that increase environmental, social, cultural and economic wellbeing.
Incentives for Change Projects
Eutrophication Product Footprinting
Eutrophication indicators will help New Zealand agribusiness reduce environmental impacts and meet expected new European environmental standards
Indicators Working Group
Investigating the use of indicators to help the primary and public sector meet local, national and international reporting requirements
The Matrix of Drivers
A foundational understanding of international and domestic drivers and issues, and their importance to the primary sector
This project has produced
New Models of Collective Responsibility
Developing new ways to strengthen the connection between people, land and water
Register of Land Management Actions
What's been done? A national record of land management actions to improve water quality and restore catchments
Reasons for Water Quality Improvement
Investigating the reasons for decreasing phosphorus concentrations in many waterways
Credence Attributes On Farm
What are the on-farm impacts of changing food production systems to deliver additional attributes that are meaningful and valuable to consumers?
Integrating Value Chains
Providing knowledge on how to construct global value chains that share increased value with New Zealand farmers and growers, and meet environmental expectations of consumers…
Rewarding Sustainable Practices
Delivering validated new knowledge to agribusiness leaders transforming commodity supply chains to premium value chains