Towards the integrated assessment of New Zealand pastoral farm systems

Land use and management change is a feature of New Zealand farm systems, driven by a range of factors including volatile markets and exchange rates, variable weather and climate patterns, continuous policy evolution and the inherent innovation of New Zealand farmers. Yet the common indicators used to evaluate the impact of change appear to be limited to the link between productivity (of land/labour/capital) and profitability. However, if farm system “owners” seek truly sustainable systems they should consider a wider set of indicators to guide investment. Sustainability is considered in terms of the ability of the pastoral farm system to fulfil its primary purpose in the long-term, i.e. “to derive value from the natural capital of a land and water resource that is sufficient to support the objectives of the resource owner” and fulfil secondary objectives considered important by other stakeholders (e.g., product and environmental quality). The objective of this study was to develop an integrated assessment framework for sustainability indicators that was useful for guiding change decisions at the farm system scale, a key determinant of regional economic, environmental and social outcomes. The approach is based on the fundamental properties of a complex adaptive system: existence, effectiveness, freedom of action, security, adaptability and coexistence, applied to six key system drivers (financial, environmental, social, cultural, technological and regulatory). This framework could support decision-making in terms of the investment of human, natural and financial capital at the farm system scale and contribute to larger scale information imperatives (e.g., value chains, catchments).