Declan Graham | February 03, 2021 from GlobalHQ on Vimeo.
Trial crops of Spanish peanuts in three locations on the Pouto peninsula and at Kai Iwi Lakes grabbed headlines in January when Pic’s peanut butter founder Pic Picot visited the growing region.
His Nelson-based company has sponsored the trials, along with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Sustainable Food & Fibres Fund and management from Plant & Food Research.
Kaipara Kai manager Matt Punter says the peanuts planted in October should be ready for harvest in mid-March.
Picot was excited about the prospect of replacing some, or all, of his 2500 tonnes of annually imported nuts with NZ-grown supplies in the future.
Peanuts are also a restorative crop within a crop rotation, helping to reduce nitrogen fertiliser inputs and losses.
As almost all the national kumara crop is grown in the Kaipara District, crop rotation with peanuts would be highly complementary to kumara production.
In the first summer of the development plan, Punter says four types of vegetables were being grown at locations along the west coast – beetroot, onions, two varieties of sweet corn and two of squash.
“So far, the work has been mostly agronomy, seeing what soil types, temperatures and management practices will deliver profitable crops,” Punter said.
“All the written reports and forecasts aren’t as instructive as actually growing the crops and showing the farmers.
“We successfully got beetroot and onions to maturity in the commercial shoulder season, so that bodes well.”
New European varieties of sweetcorn and squash came from Premier Seeds and advice was taken from wholesalers like T & G and MG.
Punter says commercial-scale machinery would be needed in the future, and cropping contractors that could handle new crops amid their kumara, maize and silage workloads.
Landowners and researchers are working through the potential crops identified in a joint study by Niwa, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research and Plant & Food Research, commissioned by Kaipara District Council.
The study found that under 20% of the 310,000ha in Kaipara District is suitable for horticulture, although a small portion is subject to wind erosion and would need shelter and irrigation.
Several crops presented an opportunity to be grown and incorporated into cropping rotations with existing agricultural systems. They are olives, hops, hemp and CBD cannabis, avocados, peanuts, soybeans and sorghum.
Olives and avocados were considered most suitable for the Mangawhai district, peanuts on the sandy soils on the Pouto peninsula, soybeans and sorghum on heavier soils and hops, hemp and cannabis more widely spread with pest and disease control and wind protection.
Market opportunities, compatibility with other land-uses, and profitability were part of
the selection criteria, and not part of the suitability assessments.
The report said the region receives between 100 and 1400mm of rainfall annually and gets 1850 to 1950 sunshine hours.
Climate change projections included annual average temperature increases of 2-3.5 degrees Celsius, a substantial increase in growing degree days, reduction in annual wet days and higher adverse rainfall events and floods.
“Crops with significant summer warmth requirements and no specific winter chilling needs would be better suited for Kaipara in the 2050s, including avocados, sorghum, soybeans and peanuts,” the report said.
Another report, called Kaipara Kai Growing Larger, by Coriolis, said the district was underperforming when compared with its neighbours in creating agricultural output.
It had two major agricultural industries accounting for 90% of revenue, being cows and kumara.
Food industries accounted for about half of the jobs in the district but over the past two decades, Kaipara had not created employment in the food and beverage chain.
The region is going to need industrial scale, a focus on being Auckland’s farming district and an Italian-style regional food identity and lifestyle brand.
Attempts to expand kumara exporting face similar challenges that will be common to other crops should they be grown at scale in Kaipara.
The current challenges are small farms, low yields, high labour requirements and low mechanisation.
Punter says unforeseen weather conditions during the spring and summer had both threats and opportunities.
Higher soil temperatures than expected followed a mild winter with adequate rainfall, which meant the vegetable seeds could have been planted earlier.
But La Nina forecasts suggested much more rainfall than eventuated and so rudimentary watering was required.
