Growers are the winners from having both A Lighter Touch and VICE research happening side by side at Pukekohe demonstration farm, enabling easy collaboration between the two programmes.
That’s the view of Vegetables New Zealand research, development and extension manager Daniel Sutton who has a foot in both programmes. He is responsible for extension for Vegetables New Zealand and Onions New Zealand, both of which are partners in A Lighter Touch (ALT) and the newly formed Te Ahikawariki Vegetable Industry Centre of Excellence (VICE).
The value to growers was highlighted by the success of the recent Vegetable Big Day Out, held at the Pukekohe demonstration farm, and hosted by VICE, with participation from ALT, Plant and Food Research and various vegetable product groups.
The two-day event was attracted more than 200 growers and industry attendees, and featured projects from ALT, VICE and other content of sector interest.
Growers and others from the industry attending the Vegetable Big Day Out at the Pukekohe demonstration farm, an event organised and hosted by VICE. Image: VICE.
“I’m a big advocate that growers learn by seeing. If they can see it, feel it, touch it, that’s how you get uptake.
“A research or demonstration farm is how you do that with vegetable growers, so the ability to have that in such a large vegetable growing area, the value of that can’t be over-estimated.”
A Lighter Touch has been working to support grower extension alongside vegetable product groups Vegetables New Zealand, and Onions New Zealand over the past few years on the four hectare Pukekohe demonstration site. The Vegetables Industry Centre of Excellence project, about which discussions started in 2022, is working to build a proof-of-concept for a vegetable research farm on the site that expands available land for research and supports initiatives like ALT and other research programmes in the future.
Daniel says the establishment in 2021 of the Pukekohe demonstration farm through the A Lighter Touch programme, and in partnership with Vegetables New Zealand, Onions New Zealand and Balle Brothers who own the land, really showcased the value of the demonstration farm concept.
“The VICE research farm wouldn’t be there without the success of the ALT demonstration farm. But what VICE gives us as an industry is a wider scope of work outside ALT’s focus on crop protection. While ALT projects have a specific, and important purpose, of seeking lighter touch crop protection solutions, VICE can do anything and everything vegetable research related.”
Biodiversity project lead Olivia Prouse shares knowledge from the A Lighter Touch-Vegetables NZ-Onions NZ project with attendees at the Vegetable Big Day Out. Image: VICE.
This is illustrated through the early projects that VICE has funded which include a focus on nitrogen management, something that is outside the scope of ALT. Another project involving Vegetables New Zealand and Syngenta is evaluating different application methods of an insecticide drench against the industry standard.
However, there is also the ability for VICE-funded projects to sit side by side with ALT projects. VICE is running a smart trapping trial alongside a sweetcorn crop planted as part of an ALT-Vegetables New Zealand project to demonstrate trap cropping as an integrated pest management tool against green vegetable bug.
Similarly, this summer VICE funded a student to undertake biodiversity research utilising the ALT-Vegetables New Zealand-Onions New Zealand biodiversity project which is now in its third year. The research VICE funded involved insect monitoring of the moveable pods or insectaries, which are one of the components of the biodiversity project.
“It added to the bank of knowledge for an existing ALT project, and enabled a really great piece of work for a summer student to focus on, also utilising and engaging the expertise of Plant and Food Research by putting a summer student in lab with (entomologist) Asha (Chhagan) one day a week for most of the summer. That’s hugely valuable.”
Plant and Food Research entomologist Asha Chhagan (third from left) and VICE summer student Leo Farrell (fourth from left) inspect a mobile insectary for insect life with attendees at the Vegetable Big Day Out. Image: VICE.
Daniel says from his perspective, being based at the demonstration farm site, there is really easy collaboration between ALT and VICE – “it goes hand in glove.”
“Some of the work VICE will do will cross-over and have relevance in the ALT world, and what ALT is doing will have cross-over to what VICE is doing, but ultimately it’s all for the benefit of growers.
“If it’s ALT or VICE branded, from a growers’ perspective it’s irrelevant. For growers, it’s more information, more research, more demonstration of ‘stuff’ that is out there – that’s what they’re getting out of it.”
