<p><strong>Farming Has Always Been Part of Phil&rsquo;s Life</strong></p>
<p>Phil Journeaux&rsquo;s pathway to co-leading the NZAGRC&rsquo;s Māori-focused research programme (with Dr Tanira Kingi at Scion) was set at an early age.</p>
<p>Born and raised in the rural Central North Island in Raetihi, most of his friends lived on farms, so he was interested in farming from his childhood.</p>
<p>After attending College in Ohakune and Whanganui Phil headed to Massey University where he did his Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree and later completed his Master of Agricultural Science.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Essentially it was a follow-on from my interest in farming,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I started work out of varsity with MAF (now Ministry of Primary Industries, MPI)&nbsp;as a farm advisor in Northland. Within MAF&nbsp;I ended up as North Island Manager for the Policy Group. I was interested in aspects of management, so did an MBA at Waikato University.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Phil&rsquo;s interests also expanded to include the specifics of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation research.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Given the wider publicity around GHGs, I was interested in what this meant at a farm level &ndash; what practical measures could farmers take, and what was the implication for this on farm systems and profitability?&rdquo;</p>
<p>This focus on farms systems, management and mitigation blended into Phil&rsquo;s next role with AgFirst.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My main role was as an agricultural economics consultant, although I was involved in some research-type projects involving land use, agri-environmental impacts and cost/benefit analyses, plus some involvement in Primary Growth Partnership (PGP programmes) a research fund operated by MPI.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Now, in his involvement in the NZAGRC&rsquo;s Māori-focused research programme, Phil is a combination of project manager &ndash; overseeing the administration of the project and completion of milestones etc - as well as carrying out modelling work with Farmax and Overseer, and on-farm economic analyses.</p>
<p>The NZAGRC funded programme aims to assist the capacity of Māori farmers to improve their efficiency and productivity while lowering GHG emissions.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The work to date shows that (a) the application of the GHG mitigation strategies can be quite complex at a farm level, and (b) every farm is different, so there are not necessarily easy answers to the question of mitigating GHGs and remaining profitable.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Looking forward, Phil says he intends to continue working on GHG mitigation strategies that are both practical and maintain farm profitability and acknowledges the importance of &ldquo;disseminating information and working with farmers in achieving the adoption of some of these approaches.&rdquo;</p>