Gaining knowledge to help provide New Zealand growers with more biological crop protection tools will be the focus for the A Lighter Touch team attending the upcoming Salinas Biologicals Summit.
Supporting Growers Adapt to a Changing Environment is the theme of the conference, being held in California in June. It will examine the impact of calls for “less chemicals, more biologicals” on growers, and the emerging technologies and biological solutions being developed to support them.
A Lighter Touch Programme Director Livia Esterhazy, who is attending the summit with Programme Manager Sarah Sorensen, says the use of biological crop protection products is a key aspect of the A Lighter Touch programme.
“As part of our focus on levers that will enable the greatest shift towards agroecological crop protection, we are looking at how we support increased use of biological products, and removing barriers to their uptake. This includes work around raising awareness, looking for efficiencies in the regulatory pathway, and incorporating their use into crop protection programmes on-farm.
“The summit is bringing together international experts from across the world, focusing on exactly these issues, and we’ll be looking to take that knowledge and incorporate it into our work for the benefit of New Zealand growers, their business, the economy and the environment.”
Livia is also speaking about A Lighter Touch as part of a panel discussion at the summit, alongside organisations from New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom with a similar focus on providing growers with new crop protection solutions.
“We’re want to highlight the great work being done by the industry and our growers in New Zealand to an international audience, as well as learning about the steps other countries are taking to address global issues such as market access, resistance management, and reduced chemistry due to regulatory change,” Livia says.
Being held on June 25 and 26, the Salinas Biologicals Summit will focus on changes in the regulatory, technology, consumer, retail and global macro-economic environments. The full programme for the summit is available here.
