Strong rural communities are no accident – they are just elusive!

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Posted by Brendon Walsh on 1 November 2016

Te Kuiti Muster 1

Strong, healthy rural communities deliver leveraged results for New Zealand. Weak, unhealthy communities do not. We all know and accept this but the trouble is that individual rural communities are sometimes strong and sometimes weak, and we also don’t really know how to help rural communities stay consistently strong!

Now, I realise this is a touchy subject with many but we must discuss this topic and move forward with it or we will continue to get the rhetoric, lack of action and lack of results that has characterised rural New Zealand for years.

For several decades, rural fortunes have seemed to rise and fall with commodity prices and economic cycles. Improving product prices, regionalised industry and jobs, increasing land values and/or relatively few industry compliance requirements often were key drivers of happy and prosperous farming communities. The opposite of these are well known to bring farmer confidence down markedly.

In these times, we see an increase in stress and rural suicide (not often talked about) and people become busier. The Rural Support Trust and other agencies step up their efforts (thankfully they are there for rural folk), rural bankers become more concerned and scrutinise farm performance figures very closely and stress generally moves beyond the “simmer” level.

“Tell us something we don’t know Walsh!” Yes, I know and agree! So, what to do about it?

Well, if we want strong rural fortunes we need strong rural communities. But how do we do that?

We may not know all the answers on how to make rural communities stay consistently strong but we don’t have to. I believe we need to help the individuals within the rural communities become strong people who take personal leadership through being the best they can be, whatever that is. They need to be able to make decisions and take actions that create strength in their own lives and in what they are doing.

When people can do this, they end up contributing in more ways and in higher quality ways to others, such as schools, hobby groups, sports clubs and teams, local governance and in providing greater employment. Their profits and greater personal energy flows through other businesses. Innovative systems, innovative products, innovative people and positive collaborative efforts are all required here. But remember, they must help individuals become strong people who take actions that create strength in their own lives and in what they are doing, not be there just to drag more revenue from farmer’s pockets. A profit motive is fine providing it is preceded by a commitment to deliver value!

For farmers, this means they know where they are going, they learn how to be profitable and they go and make it happen, under any of the climate/economic/regulatory conditions that prevail. Ideally that happens year on year, and why not? I realise not everyone will agree this is possible but it can be done and is being done, right around New Zealand – just on a small scale by a minority of farmers.

As the number of rural people operating this way increases, the rural communities become stronger. Why? Because despite the economic cycles, trends and climate events (all beyond their control), these people know how to respond with resilience and proactivity to be in positions where they either don’t take the hits that inevitably come, or they can absorb the hits and respond in ways that see them emerge in great shape! This breeds confidence and brings true passion to the fore. When the basics are covered, there is time, energy and resources for contribution to others, and so the vibe spreads!

So, rural New Zealand - let’s work on helping each other to step up and deliver the results we all say we want. We can’t wait for “someone else” to do it for us. We are all capable of it. Each of us must claim that power and just get on with it!

If you are curious about how the GrowFARM® System can help sheep and beef farmers generate the profits they really want, contact me here.

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Comments

  • Such sensible advice! But these days farmers are surrounded by 'advisors' who tell them what to do, even if it includes doing what they are doing WRONG. There are too many people with vested commercial interests (even the scientists whose research grants depend on saying the right things), and so many farmers who think that these 'experts' must know what they are talking about, even if their instinct is to disagree. There's a great article in NZ Farmer this week about Peter Nuttall of Lincoln encouraging farmers to use their instincts. So you don't want advisors who tell you exactly what to do, you want one who makes you think and analyse what to do and why. Try Brendon!

    Posted by Sue Edmonds, 01/11/2016 4:46pm (7 years ago)