Innovative and adaptive future farming, particularly as it relates to profitable future use of dryland country in New Zealand - a personal view

Abstract

First some science and facts to put the dryland area into a NZ farming perspective. The dryland farming regions of New Zealand make up a significant proportion of the east coast stretching from Hawke's Bay in the North Island down to East Otago in the South Island. There are also other pockets of dryland in inland areas of Central Otago, Wanganui and South Canterbury. Dryland farming regions are generally defined as those environments where summer evapotranspiration exceeds summer rainfall in the majority of years (Brown et al. 2004).