History

Sir Apirana Ngata played a pivotal role in developing a national scheme that amalgamated Māori land and provided funding to farm it. His success was largely due to his experience farming on the East Coast among his Ngāti Porou people, as well as his knowledge of European law.

In the 1900s, Ngata became deeply interested in farming on the East Coast, as he took over Ahikouka Station and managed three others. Ngāti Porou leaders like Rapata Te Wahawaha and Mokena Kohere had successfully farmed sheep on open country in the late 1800s, and it became apparent that for sheep farming to be successful a more structured approach was necessary.

Māori Farming Today

Farming an area of 720,000 hectares worth an estimated $7.5 billion, Māori are the largest natural grouping of pastoral farmers in New Zealand.

The Māori contribution to the economy is significant. In the early 2000s more than 15 percent of the country’s sheep and beef exports came from Māori farming interests.

In 2008, there were 129 Māori incorporations and 5,201 ahuwhenua trusts - which together administer about two-thirds of all Māori land - almost all of them with interests in agriculture.

The largest 10 Māori incorporations alone collectively control around $1 billion of diversified assets concentrated mainly in the primary sector.

Māori incorporations include Whakatu Incorporation (Nelson Bays Marlborough), Parininihi Ki Waitotara Incorporation (Taranaki), Wairārapa Moana Incorporation (King Country), Mangatu Incorporation (Poverty Bay), Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation (Ruapehu, Whanganui), Taharoa C Incorporation (Waikato), Mawhera Incorporation (West Coast), Waitutu Incorporation (Southland), Tahora 2C1 Incorporation (Hawke’s Bay) and Mangatawa-Papamoa Incorporation (Bay of Plenty).

There are a number of historic, political and cultural reasons that have influenced Māori farming.

• Historic land losses and confiscations
• Legislative impediments.
• In many cases Māori have had to wait for leases to expire and then buy their own land back so they can farm it. This is still going on.
• Often the land handed back was/is in very poor condition.
• Huge debt has often been incurred in buying back land.
• Major development work has had to be done, and frequently there has been insufficient capital to do it quickly.
• The customary nature of the land has made it difficult to sell to raise capital for development, and has often been an impediment to raising loan money.
• Incorporations have to support a large and increasing number of shareholders.
• Because there are large areas now being farmed, the sector has to be managed and governed in a more corporate fashion. This has meant it has had to grow the governance side of its operations substantially.

In the past 15-20 years there have been major changes in the sector driven by:

• new, more experienced leadership coming into trusts and incorporations
• better governance and management, which has led to a more positive and proactive response from banks
• recovery of tribal lands, which have come out of lease agreements and have been bought back debt recovery
• the purchase of “General land” land to provide greater security of investment
• diversification strategies, which are being implemented by progressive management. These are allowing incorporations to get better returns on capital, which has provided more capital to reinvest on farms
• a much greater sense of pride – driven especially by the awards.

The future is likely to see:

• a continuing emphasis on developing governance and management
• more amalgamations between smaller trusts and incorporations
• more diversification strategies especially into the energy sector, wine, horticulture, forestry and property
• some overseas investment and partnerships – particularly instigated by the bigger trusts and incorporations
• an interesting and continuing debate on how to return a dividend to an increasing number of shareholders.