TECHNOLOGY
Work is underway with existing farm systems to find new ways of producing food.
Growing agritech By Tony Benny
A roadshow to showcase the latest developments in agritech is hitting the road to keep farmers informed.
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Agritech New Zealand chief executive Brendan O’Connell says the Farm 2050 initiative will see New Zealand become part of an international network of trial farms to test new technologies to feed the world and protect the environment.
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proposal under the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) to create a national centre of excellence for horticultural robotics has been modified after concerns were raised that it may duplicate existing facilities. The idea is one of three “high-impact projects” identified in the $11.4 million ITP launched by the Government last year, an effort to grow the agritech sector that already earns $1.4 billion in exports annually. Agritech New Zealand chief executive Brendan O’Connell says it makes more sense to act as a catalyst and support existing research and engineering groups than set up a whole new national centre. “There was an idea put forward and when it got to further investigation it was ‘Yeah, there’s something there, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater’,” O’Connell says. What’s proposed instead is a body
that can act as a catalyst and pull together existing entities to help them respond to international opportunities for horticultural robotics, a term that embraces a range of automation and sensing technology and the internet of things (IoT). “It’s had a whole pile of industry consultation, a business plan is being developed and there’s further funding likely to be sought. The business plan will go to the Treasury at some point to get further funding to set up that catalyst group,” he says. The launch of the ITP in July 2020 was delayed by the covid-19 lockdown and since then proposals have been developed and AgritechNZ, together with MBIE, is staging a series of roadshows around the country to bring the agritech industry up-to-date. Work on the other two high-impact projects — an agritech venture capital fund and the Farm 2050 Global Nutrients Project — is continuing too.
DAIRY FARMER
March 2021
