Of that number, 62 have gone from AgResearch’s former Waikato flagship, Ruakura.
Figures obtained by Farmers Weekly in the wake of the latest round of scientific job redundancies at AgResearch’s four campuses, under which 12 scientists and 12 technicians will go, show a heavy science job toll from restructures in the past decade.
But AgResearch said its science output was up when measured by the number of science papers published each year.
It published 293 papers last year, compared to 220 five years ago.
AgResearch said at June 30 this year it employed 577 research staff – 307 scientists and the rest technical staff – at its four sites.
Given not all jobs were full-time, that was the equivalent of 523.71 full-time staff across four campuses, it said.
Five years ago on that date, AgResearch employed 681 research staff – scientists and technicians – which it said is the equivalent of 613.07 full time research staff. That was 104 more staff than this year.
Ten years ago it employed 663 scientists and technicians, the equivalent of 613 full time research staff.
The figures are chilling for farmers already worried about the loss of new knowledge development for their businesses, and Waikato University agribusiness professor Jacqueline Rowarth said they represented a huge decrease in this country’s research capability.
But she said the culprit was not AgResearch but government funding for science research.
“Those figures are the realities of what is going into AgResearch and it is not inflation-adjusted,” she said.
“Inflation is significant in science because we have to get such a lot of stuff from overseas.
“Scientists are treated like rubbish.”
Veteran dairying leader and Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture Science member Lloyd Downing questioned how much research could come out of AgResearch in the next five years with that number of job losses.
“My main concern is farmers need independent research,” he said. “If the big fertiliser companies do research, that’s not independent research.
“New Zealand farmers have been as successful as they have because they have had great research coming out of Ruakura in the past.
“We haven’t been led by big fertiliser companies and milking machine companies.”
Federated Farmers has asked the next government to spend $600 million on science and innovation.
President William Rolleston said if NZ was to have a world-class economy it needed world-class investment to develop technology, crops, feed, and animals.
AgResearch said the 24 science staff who were casualties of last month’s restructure announcement were the equivalent of work done by 10.75 scientists and 10.6 full-time technicians because not all 24 worked full-time.
Ten new research jobs, nine full-time and one part-time, have emerged from the latest review. Five are jobs for scientists, with the balance technical roles and a science support position. One of the new jobs will go to a staff member whose job was axed.
To add to the numbers soup, there are 11 science vacancies at AgResearch, eight from this year and three from last year.
It takes AgResearch 109 days on average to recruit a scientist.
Asked how AgResearch could have so many science vacancies and be laying off staff, research director Warren McNabb said it was a matter of matching skills to capabilities where there were new opportunities.
At the same time staff were being reduced in areas where there was declining need.
Staff, including scientists, were retrained and redeployed where possible, he said.
Once the latest science restructure is implemented, there will be 158 research staff at Ruakura, once the institute’s flagship campus.
Of those, 82 were scientists who represented 75.5 full-time equivalent jobs, while the total 158 staff represented 138.15 full-time equivalents, McNabb said.
Five years ago 220 research staff were employed at Ruakura, the equivalent of nearly 192 full-time staff. Ten years ago there were 255 scientists and technicians at the Waikato campus.
AgResearch preferred to measure its science outputs by the impact it created, which was more important but harder to measure than science papers, he said.
AgResearch produced 244 papers five years ago, 265 in 2010, 321 in 2011, 307 in 2012, and 293 last year.
AgResearch had more than 900 projects on the go for the benefit of NZ agriculture, he said.
“In some areas the research emphases have changed, reflecting industry demand and consequently the funding available.
“The model of science delivery has changed since the days of DSIR and MAFTech and the advent of the industry-good bodies.
“We now partner with organisations such as DairyNZ and Beef+ Lamb and Deer Industry NZ at their field days and other events.
“We contribute to their publications and in many cases the science they deliver is work they have funded AgResearch, either wholly or in part, to carry out.”
