Technology

Agritech attitudes range from paper to the pixel

A survey of farmers’ and growers’ attitudes to digital technology has revealed some contrasting approaches to its uptake and use across farmer types. Richard Rennie spoke to Agritech NZ chief executive Brendan O’Connell about just how digi-savvy the Kiwi primary sector is.

JUST over 40% of New

Zealand’s growers and farmers fail to see much value in using digital technology to run their businesses – and only 24% rate their knowledge of digital tools as “good to excellent”.

Agritech NZ chief executive Brendan O’Connell says these and other results from the fi rst comprehensive survey across horticulture, dairy, sheep and beef and arable farmers have proven surprising – though not necessarily all are as concerning as the 40% fi gure may indicate.

“You can equally say there are 60% of the sector who do lean towards the adoption of digital technologies,” says O’Connell.

“The thing that needs closer scrutiny is that we have tended to talk about ‘farmers’ as a homogeneous group. This survey shows they are far from that.”

With its distinct farmer-grower groups split into six categories, the survey goes a step further to classify their attitudes to digital uptake as one of six profi les – traditionalist, conservative, pressured, pragmatist, persuadable and trailblazers.

Sheep/sheep and beef/beef farmers are far and away most likely to be numbered among the “traditionalists”, and comprise 58% of that category.

Typically, members of this group have low appetite for change, and are happy with what they have always done in the traditional farming sense.

O’Connell says it is not entirely surprising to fi nd a high portion of farmers falling into the “traditional” attitude category.

“People often do not go farming because they have a great interest in technology and digital tools; it’s often for many other reasons. It also pays to look at the level of ‘pragmatists’, which have a high portion of all sectors’ farmers in them.

“That makes a lot of sense to me – there are plenty of farmers and growers out there who know they are not that familiar with the tech, but do know it could help them.”

But at the opposite end of the spectrum, as “trailblazers”, sheep and beef farmers are well represented, accounting for 28% of farmers taking that attitude, well ahead of horticultural growers, who are only 10% of that sector.

Dairy farmers’ propensity for adopting digital tech is highlighted by their dominance of the two most innovative groups.

They account for a third of the farmer types in the trailblazing group, and a further 28% of those in the “persuadable” group, that is those who are reasonably motivated to adopt technology, and who see fewer barriers than others.

As a group, 70% of dairy farmers agree that the digital tech available adds signifi cant value to their operations.

This compares with an average of 59% across all groups, and 48% for sheep and beef. Almost 80% of arable farmers also agree with that statement.

Perhaps surprisingly, the survey found internet connectivity does not necessarily dictate farmers’ attitudes to digital tech. The rating for internet connectivity fails to be a signifi cant impactor on adoption rate for all six of the agritech types.

“We did fi nd that all the trailblazers had a high proportion of satellite connections, and that if people really wanted to be online, they could get the internet. But even if you had perfect connectivity, it would not necessarily drive greater adoption levels,” O’Connell says.

The “entry point” digital tech for farmers is proving to be in areas of business and animal management for about 70% of them.

The areas of lowest uptake of digi-tech are for water irrigation, crop, and effl uent management at 28%, 27% and 12% respectively.

Again, arable farmers are the exception to this, with very high levels of use (72%) for crop management.

O’Connell says compliance is driving a big part of digi-tech uptake, with 61% of all farmers and growers putting it as the main reason for uptake. The compliance impact is relatively even across all farm types. The other two key reasons are effi ciency gains and ease of use.

“What will be interesting will be to come back to this in three years or so to see if the motivation for uptake has in any way changed. By then we will have some of the major compliance things like He Waka Eke Noa well underway.”

Cost is the main barrier to tech uptake for 52% of all farmergrowers. Being happy with a printed manual system that works is also a factor.

Surprisingly, previous bad experiences with tech do not put farmers off from having another go with it, and there is a willingness there that is often misrepresented.

O’Connell says the survey provides some deep insights into farmers’ attitudes that will prove invaluable for tech players, industry groups and communicators in delivering more nuanced messaging to specifi c groups, and understanding their uptake attitudes.

“We are already talking to groups involved in farm extension wanting to know how to approach particular segments.”

The thing that needs closer scrutiny is that we have tended to talk about ‘farmers’ as a homogeneous group. This survey shows they are far from that.

Brendan O’Connell Agritech NZ CEO

OFFLINE: A keen interest in technology is not usually the reason people choose to go into farming, says Brendan O’Connell. Photo: NZ Story DOING IT RIGHT: Brendan O’Connell says the survey provides deep insights into farmers’ attitudes that will prove invaluable for tech players, industry groups and communicators.

Nutiani pushes behind the scenes for Fonterra’s strategy

Hugh Stringleman NEWS

Dairy

FONTERRA has launched a business-to-business sub-brand called Nutiani in its big NZMP ingredients division, to provide products, concepts and services to customers in the health and wellbeing sector.

The specialised ingredients covered by the new brand include lactoferrin, probiotics and phospholipids, Fonterra’s new chief innovation and brand offi cer, Komal Mistry-Mehta, said.

“We are moving Fonterra from a trusted dairy supplier to trusted nutrition partner,” she said.

The move is within Fonterra’s new strategy to use existing expertise in nutrition science to develop targeted solutions while opening up opportunities for strategic partnerships to deliver access to new markets and consumers.

The Nutiani sub-brand will not require a large investment, and will be staffed by existing staff members in the research and development centre and in the health and wellbeing section of the NZMP division.

NZMP already has sub-brands called SureStart for ingredients in paediatric products, and SureProtein, which will be retired over the next six months.

Nutiani will leverage intellectual property and investments in research.

“This is another example of Fonterra implementing its strategy to be a leader in nutrition science and innovation,” MistryMehta said at a briefi ng for media.

“The opportunity for the coop is signifi cant. Global markets for physical, mental and inner wellbeing nutrition are growing at 6% annually and worth US$66 billion [about $107.9b] today, while medical nutrition is valued at US$50b and growing 5% annually.

“There’s no doubt that people are paying more attention to wellbeing and managing it through diet. Research shows 96% of consumers actively manage their wellbeing, with more than half of these consciously managing their diet to improve their wellbeing,” Mistry-Mehta said.

“To create a greater impact in the health and wellbeing space, we must not only capture the opportunities we see today but also look to the future, helping our customers stay ahead of the curve.”

As a brand Nutiani will not appear on consumer packs but in pitches to manufacturers of health and wellbeing products of new products, market-ready concepts and services and solutions from NZMP.

Mistry-Mehta declined to say what tonnages and revenues were included in the budgets for Nutiani, saying her health and wellbeing unit is well on track to deliver its 2030 targets included in the Fonterra strategy.

Target markets for Nutiani included North America, Greater China and Southeast Asia.

“Our health and wellbeing customers are facing growing pressure to accelerate their innovation pipeline to respond to consumer demands.

“Yet they face common challenges during new product development and are looking for partners to fi ll their capability gaps.

“Nutiani answers this need by providing a suite of solutions which help customers tackle the pain points associated with each step of the innovation journey – from identifying the opportunity to validating the fi nal product.”