The Crown research institute’s multi-disciplinary team collected $500,000 of prize money in the 2017 Prime Minister’s Science Prize for the intensive work they did after the Psa disease incursion in November 2010 as they battled to identify the strain of the disease, develop a test for it and determine replacement cultivar tolerance to the disease.
The disease ultimately laid to waste the original gold kiwifruit variety Hort16a, the up and coming hope for the industry’s future growth.
Psa’s rapid spread required the complete removal of the cultivar, crippling orchard incomes and land values and leaving a yawning gap in Zespri’s efforts to expand its kiwifruit portfolio.
Plant and Food Research chief operating officer Dr Bruce Campbell said with Italian growers already grappling with the disease’s debilitating impact, he was well aware of its implications here at the time.
“It quickly became evident containment was not an option.”
The award recognised several strands of the researchers’ work.
Theu included the rapid development of a diagnostic test to determine the strain of Psa that affected kiwifruit.
The test was a world-first enabling growers to accurately identify infected vines rather than face indiscriminate culling of entire orchards.
Filling the $100 million-plus hole left by the stricken Hort16a variety also required researchers to put trial cultivars through rapid and intensive Psa exposure tests to determine their tolerance.
“We were testing right to the latest point and we had to choose the best cultivar, fortunately G3 proved to be very good.
The G3 regraft by the industry was a test of confidence in the science.”
Te Puke kiwifruit grower and former Kiwifruit Vine Health board member Paul Jones said he was privileged to have an insight to the work scientists did in a stressful and pressured situation post-Psa discovery.
That included their initial work trying to save the Hort16a cultivar.
“It is fair to say the industry at all levels is very grateful to Plant and Food for the amount of work they did and the priority they gave it at the time.
“Growers not immediately involved may not appreciate just how much work was done, not only on determining G3’s tolerance but trialling all manner of treatments and developing a world-first Psa test.”
At the height of the scramble to understand the disease more than 100 scientists and researchers were committed across research institutes.
The wide spectrum of scientists included genomic, molecular and epidemiological researchers.
Campbell said he and his team had a deep sense of pride in receiving an award for work that had helped push the industry back to the top of its game, with prospects it will be worth $4.5 billion by 2025.
This year 48 million trays of SunGold (G3) were exported for $686 million.
Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman said the effort and the award showed the value of science and research in the growing horticulture industry.
“The fact that in NZ we have such brilliant scientists who can turn the potential collapse of an industry into it rising from the ashes to be better than ever before is something we should not only be proud of but something we should invest more money into.”
Campbell said the $500,000 was a very useful sum that enabled the team to dedicate research resources to further understanding and controlling Psa while also studying other plant diseases.
