FarmsOnline gives full picture of New Zealand farming

The FarmsOnLine project greatly strengthens New Zealand’s ability to manage pest and disease emergencies through the capture and re-use of information.

The problem

During the response to a foot-and-mouth disease hoax on Waiheke Island in 2005, it took the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) more than a week to identify and contact all properties with potentially at-risk species.

The information needed for the Waiheke operation did mostly exist but wasn’t aggregated in one place. If it had been, and had been compatibly formatted, the work would have only taken two days. The situation MAF faced in Waiheke Island could have applied to the whole country. There are 74 different territorial authorities in New Zealand with different systems and, up until April 2011, no consolidated information on farms and lifestyle blocks. In some cases, there was no information at all.

If diseases such as foot-and-mouth can’t be quickly quarantined, they spread rapidly. A serious outbreak has the potential to destroy farmers’ livelihoods and undermine New Zealand’s reputation. It could result in international trade restrictions and could cost the economy millions of dollars a day.

The solution

The FarmsOnLine project greatly strengthens New Zealand’s ability to manage pest and disease emergencies through the capture and re-use of information.

Experience has shown that information about farm location, ownership, management and the location of stocks and crops is critical for:

• Effective surveillance programmes to protect international market access
• Biosecurity and rural emergency responses
• Developing and implementing robust policy to secure the future of the rural sector
• Assisting with the implementation of government and industry programmes, including the planned National Animal Identification and Tracing programme and Animal Health Board tuberculosis programme.

MAF wanted FarmsOnLine to be easy to use by farmers so they could register their information via an online form.

MAF also knew the issue of privacy was immensely important, says MAF Project Sponsor, Clifton King.“People needed to know and be given the assurance that their information was in safe hands and being used for the benefit of New Zealand as a whole.”

The FarmsOnLine solution is comprehensive. Based on Microsoft .NET technology, it encompasses and brings together three websites and eight databases. The data is aggregated from a number of different external sources such as local authorities, Land Information New Zealand, New Zealand Post, Department of Conservation and the Animal Health Board.

FarmsOnLine went live in April 2011, on schedule and within budget. Feedback received has been positive – from stakeholders and farmers alike. The project also received a unanimously positive appraisal in the fourth stage of its Gateway Review. The review is a State Services-mandated methodology for reviewing the progress of key IT projects at a number of stages.

The FarmsOnLine solution is expected to surpass 90% farm contactability in the coming 12 months, as ratepayer information becomes available. The solution allows 50,000 farms to update their information each year.

King says if there’s an adverse event now, MAF can get operations immediately underway and know exactly where the farms are. “We’ll not be encumbered by a huge administrative workload at the same time as coordinating a timecritical emergency response.”