Associate Agriculture Minister Meka Whaitiri says it was one of the largest partnerships being funded since the fund’s establishment in late 2018.
Whaitiri announced the project, called the Plantain Potency Programme, at Fieldays.
She says the programme fits well with the Fit For a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential roadmap, which was launched last year to further boost productivity, sustainability and jobs in the food and fibre sector.
“Innovation will continue to play a vital part in the success of the food and fibre sector for helping us to grow value in a way that respects te taiao – our natural world,” Whaitiri said.
“That includes protecting our waterways and improving freshwater quality. That’s why we’re so excited about this programme, plantain shows great promise as a low cost forage solution to nitrate leaching.
“This programme is expected to demonstrate plantain’s efficacy at scale, so farmers have the confidence they need to invest in pasture and practice change.”
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says modelling by DairyNZ forecasts a potential reduction of 15,000 tonnes of nitrate leached on 4200 dairy farms per year by 2035.
“That is our target, a 37% reduction from current levels,” Mackle said.
Plantain use is predicted to lead to flow-on benefits to national and regional economies.
This is due to farmers spending less on other nitrate leaching solutions, therefore having more money to spend on goods and services. It is expected to save farmers more than $1 billion per decade.
The programme will focus on improving plantain’s effectiveness across regions and soil types through farm-scale trials.
These trials will include experiments at Lincoln and Massey universities, which will measure nitrate leaching under plantain pasture compared to perennial ryegrass, to confirm reductions in leaching.
The trials will also confirm the proportion of plantain required in the pasture to achieve nitrogen loss reductions, determine the effects of different soil and climate conditions, and capture any changes in farm profit between the systems.
If proven successful, the project partners will work with farmers nationwide to help them adopt plantain onto their farms, measure outcomes and demonstrate success to other farmers.
The programme will focus on Ecotain, a plantain cultivar developed by PGG Wrightson Seeds, which could reduce nitrate-leaching by at least 20%.
“Ultimately it’s going to give farmers the confidence to invest in plantain as a key animal feed across their farms in New Zealand,” he said.
The programme will also include a generic plantain evaluation system that will link to tools for farmers.
“The programme’s first priority will be making sure we have substantial and robust scientific proof that Ecotain markedly reduces nitrate leaching at both the paddock and farm system scale, with no or minimal negative effects on farm profitability.
“It will also ensure there are no risks to animal health or welfare,” he said.
Farmers had been under pressure to manage their environmental footprint and if they were to be successful in meeting those challenges, it had to invest in tools that helped it reduce their footprint, while remaining profitable.
Mackle says this project was a great example of that research.
Much of the existing research around plantain had been at a component level using lysimeters on paddock plots.
“We need to expand it to the farm level and then look at it right the way through the value chain.”
