The Economic and environmental significance of dairy farming in aregional economy of New Zealand

摘要

The pastoral sectors of an input-output model of the Waikato region of New Zealand were extended with environmental data to create a 55 sector regional environmental input-output (EIO) model for the region. Farm survey data of incomes and expenditure covering three sheep and beef farming enterprises and four dairy farming enterprises were combined with the system of national accounts to provide a compressive disaggregation of the inputs, outputs and value- added of the regional EIO table. The EIO model was then used to determine the economic significance of the upper quartile of dairy farmers in terms of milk production. Results showed not only significant direct contribution to output, income, value-added and employment but also considerable flow-on impacts on key sectors in the regional economy. The analysis showed that most of the GHG emissions came directly from farming with very little flow-on GHG emissions from other sectors.