1. Executive Summary Context The pastoral farming sectors of Uruguay and New Zealand have enjoyed a strong and positive relationship over many decades. This relationship is evident in many aspects of their industry. • Uruguay has looked to New Zealand for leadership in developing high performing grazing systems for beef, sheep and dairy. Every year there are many contacts between the countries, including study, visits to Field Days, fact finding missions, study tours, investment and commercial transactions. • Massey and Lincoln educated people are playing important roles in agriculture in Uruguay today • Work experience programmes where young Uruguayans work on NZ farms for practical training • The success of WrightsonPAS in taking NZ pastoral species and pasture management to commercial farmers in Uruguay • Collaborative research projects with AgResearch over many years, such that there is now a formal MOU between AgResearch and their Uruguayan counterpart, INIA. Uruguay is currently embarking on a very significant investment in the further development of its farming sector, and has invited New Zealand to assist. The history between the two countries, the existing strong relationships, and the opportunity for New Zealand to add significant impact through leveraging of a US$100m development programme, mean that this project is directly aligned with the intent of the Agricultural Diplomacy Programme. Sixty-three percent of Uruguayan farms are family farms run by families lacking resources and technology to develop their farms,and improve their economic wellbeing. The Uruguayan Ministry of Agriculture (MGAP) has identified development of the sector as a major opportunity for economic development of the country and with funding from the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank and FAO are embarking on a large scale development programme over the next five years. The national goal of this programme is to improve the viability and profitability of family farms without damaging the ecologically sensitive pampa grasslands. Policy, technology transfer and extension will be major components of the MGAP funded work. The project partners also includes the two key delivery organisations, INIA and PA who will be targeting the family farms through their own programmes that are additional to those of MGAP. The New Zealand presence is seen by the partners as helping to align all three organisations, and as a result, enabling considerable synergies that will greatly increase the benefits from the US $100m investment. Already there is the example of the combining of the different on-farm programmes into a national monitor farm network and greater value being generated from the on-farm activities. The establishment of this network is a direct result of the work that has gone into designing this project. For a relatively small investment, when compared to the total funding being applied by the Government of Uruguay, this New Zealand project will provide a significant impact. Project Partners MGAP develops agricultural policy and contracts services that will assist in promoting rural development. MGAP has invited AgResearch to assist in developing the policies under which the rural development funds will be dispensed. There will then be an opportunity to work with service deliverers, notably Comisión Nacional de Fomento Rural(CNFR), to enhance development outcomes. The national extension agency Plan Agropecuario (PA) has asked AgResearch to assist in the development of their next 5 year strategic plan, after undertaking a stocktake of their work in developing farm decision support tools. PA has a number of farms from which it collects information. It wishes to improve the use of this information by the wider family farming community, and will make these farms and the information available to be a part of the national monitor farm network, and participate in this work. INIA has established a Family Farm Programme, as a technology transfer programme. The focus will be on applying technologies that are new to most farmers, particularly in augmenting natural grasslands and establishing improved pastures. New monitoring systems are being established to record both farm performance and environmental impacts. Results from research trials are being applied through on-farm demonstration. The nature and the level of commitment by INIA to technology transfer for the small and medium farmers is quite new for them and the support of AgResearch in applying technology, and measuring its effects, has been actively sought. The INIA farms differ from the PA farms, in that one leans more on technology and the other more on management. However with both organisations combining their farms in the monitor farm network, all farmers will be able to access information that is more comprehensive, more relevant to the farmer, and more likely to result in broader uptake and greater change. This project will also partner commercial companies. WrightsonPAS have offered to take on additional staff to fully participate, and meat processors will support this initiative that aims to increase the number of animals produced. The farmer run consultancy service FUCREA, has offered its training resources and experience in farmer-to-farmer led development, to help this project bring together quite disparate groups in Uruguay. Project Themes Since acceptance of the project concept, AgResearch have worked closely with INIA and PA, farmers and the industry to develop a programme plan, prioritising key activities and identifying appropriate personnel and resources from New Zealand for the programme. The project will work within three major themes: • Profitable and resilient farm systems; • Productive and persistent forage systems • Effective rural networks. The themes have been selected to ensure that the support programme is comprehensive. Programmes that have failed in the past have focussed on technology without addressing business profitability or market issues. Or they have ignored key community influencers, and had poor uptake of new ideas. The three themes come together as shown below. Figure 1. Relationship between the biological, business and community elements of farming, and the themes of this project. Through this combination of themes AgResearch will help INIA and PA in farm systems design and implementation, development and transfer of new technologies, and extension of appropriate farm business practices for the benefit of farming communities. AgResearch will assist MGAP formulate policies that will result in better targeting of rural development initiatives, and produce more effective outcomes. The project specifically targets activities on a network of Monitor Farms (MF) which will build on activities already established by INIA and PA. The project aims to test and implement technologies which will raise beef production by $100 kg/ha/yr over the current baseline. It has also been designed to meet specific, quantified, targets for uptake and extension by the end of the project (2017)which include: • Farmers implementing and validating technologies on MFs (15) • Farmers influenced by programme (250) • Researchers upskilled for technology development and evaluation (20) • Technicians trained for project implementation (100) • Networks formed and trained (5) Technologies developed and staff trained within the programme will contribute to INIA and PA’s ongoing initiatives to develop the beef family farming sector and it is anticipated that these advances will be demonstrated on 900 family farms within five years of project end (2022). Key risks and mitigation The key risks to this project are those that have the potential to affect farmer uptake. External risks posed by drought and market prices can have a significant effect on farmers’ willingness to adopt new ideas. If these occur early in the project they would be major risks. If later, and the new practices that have been designed to mitigate these risks have started to be adopted, then the risk is lower. The design supports early adoption. The level and speed of uptake by farmers is affected by their attitude to change and risk. If the project attempts to target an unsegmented audience then there is a real risk that many of the farmers will be slow to adopt, taking more than the 4 years of the project. However by initially working with farmers who have the resources and the willingness to change, successful outcomes are more likely to be achieved. A core of successful farmers will improve uptake by other farmers. AgResearch has a long experience of pasture species development in Uruguay. More importantly the presence of the partners, INIA and PA and MGAP, and the knowledge and experience that they bring, will ensure success. The risk to MFAT is minimal because of the reputation of the partners in the project. The major environmental risk is the degradation of the pampa grassland. The goal of this project and associated Uruguayan projects is to increase productivity without associated environmental damage. That is repeated here. The assistance that AgResearch will be providing INIA to develop effective environmental monitoring, is a major input into developing persistent forage, reducing overgrazing, and ultimately drought-proofing farms. Project Governance and Management This project outputs will be managed by AgResearch, as management services contractor, in collaboration with our Uruguayan development partners INIA and PA. AgResearch will provide overall project management, problem analysis and research, sourcing New Zealand and Uruguayan experts to work with the development partners, farmers, and other project stakeholders. INIA and PA will provide in-country management and implementation. The governance and management structures that will be put in place will include: • Project Advisory Committee.This committee will have wide stakeholder representation, will act as an advisory body to the project management team, and ensure effective liaison with each stakeholder groups. Representation will include: INIA/PA/MGAP, farmer groups, rural women’s groups, industry associations, local community/local government representatives and a representative from the NZ Aid Programme would also be invited to become a member. • Project Management Team. This is made up of representatives of INIA, PA and AgResearch, will be responsible for drawing up workplans and budgets, and overseeing the implementation of the project. A project manager will report to the project management team. AgResearch/INIA/PA will provide a secretariat for regular reporting. AgResearch will chair the committee. The project will be carried out for 4 years (2013 – 2017) with total NZ investment of NZ$ 4.0m (including the inception tour carried out in February/March 2013). The Uruguayan Government is contributing through INIA USD $0.64m per annum, and via PA, the sum of USD $0.25m per year. The Uruguayan funds are for personnel and facilities already in place, in the programmes most closely aligned with this project. The New Zealand contribution will primarily meet the costs of providing NZ expertise in both Uruguay and New Zealand. Study tours, training costs and resources for implementation of specific project initiatives are included in the NZ funding. The Uruguayan funds will cover the cost of existing staff, research trials and extension programmes. The project will be coordinated with the development initiatives of MGAP.