title: Using Microsimulation to Maximise Scarce Survey Data: Applications for Catchment Scale Modelling and Policy Analysis

authors: Ramilan, Thiagarajah

subjects: farm survey

abstract: Microsimulation can be used to extend the use of scarce survey resources by creating simulated populations whose characteristics are close to those of the real population. The technique involves merging detailed survey observations with variables from more extensive data sets in order to create a simulated population. We illustrate how microsimulated data enable analysis of the economic and environmental impact of different policies on a catchment for which detailed farm level data was unavailable. Use of microsimulation for agri-environmental policy analysis is applicable to diverse problems from simulation of nitrogen trading to modelling of agent response to policy shocks. Scale flexibility is easily implemented since data can be aggregated or disaggregated to the preferred scale. Simulated catchment data allows better understanding of the effects of policies on different types of farm and should be extremely valuable to organisations that want to minimise the economic impact of environmental policies.

text: Using Microsimulation to Maximise Scarce Survey Data: Applications for Catchment Scale Modelling and Policy Analysis Microsimulation can be used to extend the use of scarce survey resources by creating simulated populations whose characteristics are close to those of the real population. The technique involves merging detailed survey observations with variables from more extensive data sets in order to create a simulated population. We illustrate how microsimulated data enable analysis of the economic and environmental impact of different policies on a catchment for which detailed farm level data was unavailable. Use of microsimulation for agri-environmental policy analysis is applicable to diverse problems from simulation of nitrogen trading to modelling of agent response to policy shocks. Scale flexibility is easily implemented since data can be aggregated or disaggregated to the preferred scale. Simulated catchment data allows better understanding of the effects of policies on different types of farm and should be extremely valuable to organisations that want to minimise the economic impact of environmental policies.

year: 2011

title: The political economy of a productivist agriculture: New Zealand dairy discourses

authors: Jay, Grace Mairi M.

subjects: agri-environmental practices

abstract: The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance on the one hand while maintaining economic efficiency and commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace on the other.   The growing scale and intensity of dairy production have caused significant cumulative environmental impacts.  Productivist constructions of environmental improvement by the industry are an example of ecological modernisation by a large international agri-food organisation in the face of global trade competition and domestic political pressures. This paper explores the productivist constructions of environmental management by the New Zealand dairy industry in the context of global economic competition and notes an alternative response inspired by an ethic of sustainability.  It suggests that despite global pressures of economic competition it is possible to incorporate non-material values into farm management provided these are recognised and rewarded.

text: The political economy of a productivist agriculture: New Zealand dairy discourses The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance on the one hand while maintaining economic efficiency and commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace on the other.   The growing scale and intensity of dairy production have caused significant cumulative environmental impacts.  Productivist constructions of environmental improvement by the industry are an example of ecological modernisation by a large international agri-food organisation in the face of global trade competition and domestic political pressures. This paper explores the productivist constructions of environmental management by the New Zealand dairy industry in the context of global economic competition and notes an alternative response inspired by an ethic of sustainability.  It suggests that despite global pressures of economic competition it is possible to incorporate non-material values into farm management provided these are recognised and rewarded.

year: 2006

title: Have you heard of Hinehau? A research journey of reclamation

authors: Wakefield, Sandy

subjects: Te Tai Tokerau

abstract: As the Māori political and cultural movement continues to grow, issues of representation, power, and control are critiqued by Māori minds.
After discovering a tribal myth about the mana of a woman known as Hinehau, a chain reaction of enquiry develops into the reclamation of tribal knowledge.
By investigating the historical context surrounding the narrative of Hinehau, her story transcends the fairy-tale myth she was confined to, and exposes the rendering down of her story.
Under the umbrella of Western science, European and Pākehā historical archives created an enduring legacy of “Māori myth” that is synonymous with falsehood. Through the assertation of tribal oral tradition and connecting our experiences to our missing histories, Hinehau is relocated. The Hinehau story renews through reconnecting to mātauranga Māori, Ngāpuhi kōrero tuku iho and the creativity of the researcher. In this process, her story renews.
With the guidance of hapū members, mentors, and a diversity of literature, the narrative of Hinehau becomes a part of a much larger inter-tribal narrative held within an ancestral landscape which is sometimes hard to recognise in whenua we no longer have tribal autonomy over. Our Indigenous identity is still under threat as we are still “othered” in our tribal lands. This work contributes to pushing the envelope of what it means to think, exist, and challenge as tangata whenua in Aotearoa, where traditional tribal roles have been minimalised in society, or disappeared through generations of the colonial project (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012).

text: Have you heard of Hinehau? A research journey of reclamation As the Māori political and cultural movement continues to grow, issues of representation, power, and control are critiqued by Māori minds.
After discovering a tribal myth about the mana of a woman known as Hinehau, a chain reaction of enquiry develops into the reclamation of tribal knowledge.
By investigating the historical context surrounding the narrative of Hinehau, her story transcends the fairy-tale myth she was confined to, and exposes the rendering down of her story.
Under the umbrella of Western science, European and Pākehā historical archives created an enduring legacy of “Māori myth” that is synonymous with falsehood. Through the assertation of tribal oral tradition and connecting our experiences to our missing histories, Hinehau is relocated. The Hinehau story renews through reconnecting to mātauranga Māori, Ngāpuhi kōrero tuku iho and the creativity of the researcher. In this process, her story renews.
With the guidance of hapū members, mentors, and a diversity of literature, the narrative of Hinehau becomes a part of a much larger inter-tribal narrative held within an ancestral landscape which is sometimes hard to recognise in whenua we no longer have tribal autonomy over. Our Indigenous identity is still under threat as we are still “othered” in our tribal lands. This work contributes to pushing the envelope of what it means to think, exist, and challenge as tangata whenua in Aotearoa, where traditional tribal roles have been minimalised in society, or disappeared through generations of the colonial project (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012).

year: 2021