ENC Growth Strategy
Agriculture and Broadband
August 2013
Agriculture
• CDC strategy shows the rural economy is vital
to Greater Christchurch’s recovery
• ENC must be involved in promotion of the
rural economy of North Canterbury
• Previously assisted Hurunui Water Project
• Project to support technology transfer
• Review has identified areas we can participate
by facilitating and complementing rather than
leading
Farming Environment
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Growth is beneficial
Government funding available
Water quality regulations demand better practice
New irrigation – cost and opportunity
New technology and IT skills part of future tool
kit
• Many agencies involved/crowded space
• The psychology of farmers – individuals and self
sufficient, who do they trust?
ENC Focus
• Link NC farmers to SFF and PGP projects of
relevance
• Increase farmer access to independent oneto-one advice
• Enhance the connections between local
government policy, infrastructure needs and
socio-economic impacts
• Facilitate improved dryland dairy farming in
the Hurunui
ENC Focus
• Link with existing networks and players rather
than duplicate
• Ensure NC farmers are equipped to meet
compliance requirements of water quality
regulations
• Facilitate NC farmer access to training on IT
based farm management systems
• Support increased understanding of new land
uses resulting from irrigation
ENC RURAL
• Establish ENC presence
• Must be relevant and credible
• Use the strengths from other sectors
• Leone Evans is the project leader
• leone@enterprisenc.co.nz
Broadband
• In town and country …..
• High speed broadband is essential to maintain
current competitive position
• It is NOT a competitive advantage
• Need it to be in the game
• Service requirements in all sectors becoming
more complex; requiring connectivity
everywhere, all the time, with big data
capacity and high speed
Rural Examples
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Product traceability/bar-coding
Fonterra – milk quality management
ECAN water data recording and reporting
Must be reliable and constant
Extending fibre as far as possible increases
capacity (speed) and reliability (always on)
Government Roll Out
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Limited fibre roll out in rural North Canterbury
Some towns, schools and hospitals
Increased wireless coverage and capacity
Only paying for the infrastructure – Chorus,
Enable, Vodafone
• Who will provide the service? – Telecom, ISPs,
Vodafone - not funded by government
• What demand at what price will determine the
service provided rurally?
• Not promising so far!
Key Messages
• Don’t wait for fibre to arrive – be proactive in
seeking it
• Create communities of interest in localities
that will benefit from BB – those who see the
potential
• Create partnerships to create and deliver a BB
service to rural sector
• Rural economic development will require
business/technical partnerships
ENC Activities
• Work with communities and groups to increase
capacity and speed beyond the RBB limits
• Work with communities and groups to encourage
service providers to provide a service in rural
areas with small demand
• Facilitate the community engagement, that is the
only way NC will have a BB service comparable to
the cities
Examples
• Oxford – there have been a number of
community discussions
• What is needed now is a qualified solution
involving critical players – Oxford school, a
fibre layer, a service provider
• Identifying “Home Based” professional groups
in localities – in Waimakariri and Hurunui
Fibre to the Farm
• We are starting with a vision to see fibre
delivering broadband services to every
location in NC 10 years from now
• It will require strong community engagement
and commitment with technical and service
delivery inputs – and the community will have
to pay
• Tom McBrearty – tom@enterprisenc.co.nz
Summary
• Actively identify and support the critical
components in growing NC rural economic
wealth
• “ENC RURAL”
• One of these is providing comparable BB
service to rural NC
• “FIBRE TO THE FARM”