FAR has been successful in gaining MPI Sustainable Farming Fund support for three new projects in the 2015 funding round.
FAR CEO Nick Pyke says each of the projects, which will focus on precision agriculture, groundwater and potatoes, will benefit different parts of the cropping sector, but ultimately, all will add value to the industry. Mr Pyke says the projects involve other industry funders and research organisations, a clear reflection of FAR’s strategy to gain the best for its levy payers through targeted collaborations. The three projects which have been funded are:
Transforming variability to profitability
The aim of this project is to increase the uptake of precision agriculture technology through the development of easy-to-use systems for transmitting and interpreting data. The project will include a stocktake of precision agriculture (PA) technologies available in New Zealand and the use of PA tools to carry out a geo-spatial analysis of soil characteristics and measure yield and quality of barley, maize and potatoes from those soils. This will enable the identification of the soil and crop characteristics associated with profitability. For growers, the major outcome will be a simple system to allow the development of site-specific crop management plans for geospatial soil and crop sensing results. This will encourage the adoption of precision agriculture and increase the efficiency of inputs such as water, agrichemicals and nutrients. Collaborators for this project include Landcare Research and Potatoes NZ.
Understanding the quality of our groundwater resource
This project, developed in conjunction with the Ashburton Water Users Group, will collate existing data from ground-water monitoring and modelling, identify where there are gaps in this knowledge and develop a well monitoring programme to address these gaps. This data will provide farmers in the Ashburton Zone with a better understanding of high risk zones and nitrate variability by season, region, depth and time. This in turn will help them to work with regulators to develop management strategies. It is hoped that this project will result in a template which could be used by other regions in New Zealand to collect more data on water quality.
Increasing potato yield through understanding the impact of crop rotation and soil compaction
This project aims to increase potato yields and improve soil quality in potato crop rotations. It will provide information to growers about how they can use different crops to a) reduce the impact of the soil-borne diseases Rhizoctonia solani and Spongospora subterranean b) reduce soil compaction and c) improve soil structure. Overall, it is hoped the results will contribute to a 12% (7.2 tonne/ha) increase in marketable potato yields. This project will utilise Potatoes NZ research funding, which is managed by FAR. Plant & Food Research and McCain Foods are active collaborators on the research.
Funding for the projects kicks in in June, and work will begin on the projects after that time.