Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures projects

This project will combine technologies to design, build and test a new sprayer system for kiwifruit. This concept is expected to allow more targeted spraying and reduce spray losses to soil and air.

‘A Lighter Touch’ brings the horticulture, wine, and arable sectors together to find ways to meet consumer demands for food produced through more sustainable pest management practices. It seeks to shift the focus away from traditional crop protection, and integrate biological and ecological processes into food production in New Zealand.

Media releases

Flowering plants may hold key to pesticide reduction on citrus orchards – MPI media release

Govt backing horticulture to succeed – Beehive

Programme documents

A Lighter Touch outcome logic model [PDF, 113 KB]

A Lighter Touch mid-term programme review [PDF, 1.3 MB]

Quarterly progress report summaries

January to March 2025: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 473 KB]

October to December 2024: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 514 KB]

July to September 2024: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 683 KB]

April to June 2024: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 929 KB]

January to March 2024: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 609 KB]

October to December 2023: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 410 KB]

July to September 2023: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 2.4 MB]

April to June 2023: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 1.2 MB]

January to March 2023: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 322 KB]

October to December 2022: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 267 KB]

April to June 2022: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 281 KB]

January to March 2022: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 289 KB]

July to September 2021: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 266 KB]

April to June 2021: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 270 KB]

January to March 2021: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 214 KB]

October to December 2020: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 435 KB]

July to September 2020: A Lighter Touch progress report [PDF, 317 KB]

NZ's crop production is changing for the better – A Lighter Touch

BioBrew aimed to demonstrate the efficacy of probiotics for lambing to provide farmers with a means to reduce the use of anthelmintics (antiparasitic drugs), while maintaining production and profitability.

The horticulture industry investigated the potential use of x-ray technology for treating fruit and vegetables as a pest control treatment. The treatment is increasingly used globally and could provide new export opportunities for New Zealand. The report details fruit and vegetables suitable for x-ray treatment and the feasibility of building a facility in New Zealand based on potential use.

The project developed an arable sector strategy to identify specific opportunities to support the transition from the current commodity focused industry. This includes a whole of value chain approach to enhance domestic and export growth.

The next steps are to hold workshops in 2024 to confirm priorities and actions for arable sector growth. These will involve arable growers, arable sector industry bodies, pan-primary sector interests, food manufacturers and food product innovators.

Working in partnership with CRV-Genomics, Bellevue Enterprises Ltd and AgResearch, Animal Breeding Services Ltd will address the issue of Large Offspring Syndrome in dairy cattle, which is caused by in-vitro embryo production. The project will find a way to measure gene expression during embryo in-vitro culture (IVC) and investigate IVC mediums that improve embryo transfer and calf development.

This is a farmer extension and engagement-focused project led by Atkins Ranch. It will build awareness of the challenges and opportunities surrounding regenerative agriculture verification across the sheep and beef sector. The project will assist in promoting and supporting the regenerative production of lamb meat and by-products, and deliver premiums to farmers by securing high-value contracts in overseas markets.

New project to help farmers gain regenerative agriculture certification – MPI media release

The project completed a feasibility study into establishing a shared food and beverage manufacturing facility in Te Tai Tokerau. The study found strong community and industry demand for processes such as juicing, freeze-drying, powdering and extraction. The next steps are finalising the draft business plan to attract investment for building the facility at Ngawha I&E Park.

This project will establish optimum cultivation practices for growing New Zealand-sourced strains of medicinal cannabis in a controlled environment. This information will enable licensed growers to consistently produce cannabis flowers with specific medicinal compounds.

Government helps sharpen the competitive edge of New Zealand’s medicinal cannabis industry – Government media release 

This project will establish a work programme to act on the recommendations made in the sector plan Thriving Together: Futureproofing New Zealand Apiculture 2024-2030, which supports a goal of doubling New Zealand’s honey export value by 2030. The project aims to create stability for the industry, with a clear pathway for independent growth and investment.

New Zealand Honey Strategy resets industry ambitions for a strong future – Apiculture New Zealand

This project aimed to commercially validate the technology to produce advanced lignin raw materials derived from the by-product of the wood pulping process (black liquor). Futurity has advanced the understanding of how New Zealand lignin from radiata pine can be commercially competitive and provide low-carbon alternatives to petrochemicals. Increasing the scale of production of lignin toward pilot scale has demonstrated that this is technically possible.

Wood petrochemical substitutes one step closer – Newsroom

This project builds on previous knowledge and sees restoration efforts extended into two new regions. It focuses on restoring wild mussel beds, understanding spat recruitment and using recycled shells to create habitats.

Synlait and Danone are partnering with AgResearch to benchmark and optimise soil health across 10 of their supplier farms. Regenerative practices such as hyper diverse pastures and limits on synthetic N fertilisers will be compared with conventional practices to build evidence on the impact of regenerative farming on soil health in New Zealand. The farms wider financial and environmental performance will also be evaluated.

Regenerative agriculture research receives Government boost – Beehive

This project will increase support for agriculture and horticulture science teachers in secondary schools. It will develop a support network of one full-time adviser and a support person based at St Paul’s Collegiate, and up to 16 part-time regionally based advisers. The network will provide support to teachers, create resources, and provide links to local primary industry partners.

Boost for agricultural and horticultural science in schools – Beehive

Horticulture & Agriculture Teachers Association (HATA)

The project seeks to further the development of AGR96X, a biopesticide (bacterium) effective against grass grub and manuka beetle. It aims to extend its stability under both refrigeration and ambient condition and develop different and potentially better ways to use this biopesticide in a wider range of farm systems.

Ahikā Kai Wairewa is a Wairewa marae initiative to connect landowners within our takiwā with opportunities to generate income and ensure food security through regenerative agriculture. The project enables whānau to connect with each other and their culture. It is a pathway to health and self-determination. The project utilises a māra as the platform for engagement and capacity building and an incubator for other whenua-based opportunities.

This project aims to support a cluster of Māori landowners in Aotea/Taranaki region to advance work to establish kiwifruit orchards, including consultation with landowners, orchard design plans and developing investment memoranda. The project follows a prior phase 1 MABx project to understand the suitability of the whenua to sustain productive and viable kiwifruit operations.

The project will enable Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporated to apply a Māori lens and a focus on sustainability to inform their apiculture, farming practices and subsequent market supply. The project includes mātauranga Māori farming research, mānuka management research and market analysis.

This project aimed to develop an integrated tool that combined the use of cameras, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to automatically measure fish legally released at sea. Changes to landings and discard policy changed the scope of the project. The research methodology was used to demonstrate how machine learning and AI development can advance fisheries management and monitoring in New Zealand. It focused on improving data utilisation and incorporating technology to support future management. The next step for the project team will be to find opportunities to apply their AI research in a commercial factory setting and on a wider variety of different vessels, to test the robustness of the model.

This project aims to build an artificial intelligence platform that will enable marine farmers to consistently predict shellfish meat yield. Accurate harvest yield assessments have the potential to significantly increase production value. This would result in economic gains and encourage further investment in this highly sustainable industry.