- News from the Helen Clark Foundation –
New Zealand’s $64.3 billion food and fibre export sector is being reshaped by agricultural technology – and how the country responds in the next few years will help determine whether rural communities thrive or continue to shrink, according to a new discussion paper from The Helen Clark Foundation.
Growing Innovation: The next wave of AgriTech for rural New Zealand draws on interviews with farmers, co-operatives, levy bodies, venture capital firms, and public sector leaders. It sets out 13 recommendations to turn AgriTech from a force that risks displacing intergenerational rural knowledge into one that strengthens it.
Sarah Bell, senior researcher at The Helen Clark Foundation, says New Zealand’s policy settings need to ensure that technology transforms rural areas for good.
“New Zealand has a strong history of agricultural innovation, and there’s a huge wave of new technology coming that can transform the way we produce primary products,” Bell says. “But rural areas are under a lot of pressure, and this technology can make those issues worse if we don’t get the conditions right.”
The food and fibre sector accounts for 8.8 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP and 12.4 per cent of employment. There are now more than 500 AgriTech firms operating in New Zealand, generating an estimated $2–3 billion in annual revenue.
But the paper finds the sector’s potential is being held back by financing barriers that favour large operators over family farms, gaps in rural connectivity and services, fragmented data ownership, and a slow regulatory environment. Meanwhile, the number of farms in New Zealand has declined by 33 per cent in recent decades, and farmable land by 15 per cent – a consolidation trend AgriTech could either accelerate or help reverse.
A central argument of the paper is that technology which ignores the deep intergenerational knowledge held by New Zealand farmers will fail – while technology designed in genuine partnership with rural communities can transform the country’s agricultural future.
“This is about how Government creates the conditions for farmers to do what they do best, not about telling them how to farm,” Bell says. That thinking underpins the paper’s most distinctive recommendation: a national “Living Knowledge Bank” to capture farmers’ expertise before it is lost.
“The idea is to capture not just knowledge that’s written down, but the intergenerational knowledge farmers hold that isn’t – the touch and feel, the way you sense changes in the soil, read weather patterns, observe animal behaviour,” Bell says. “Previously the next generation absorbed that naturally. As farms change, we want to make sure we don’t lose it.”
Recommendations include:
A national “Living Knowledge Bank” to capture the unwritten expertise of experienced farmers – including mātauranga Māori – before it is lost
A farmer-in-residence mentorship programme placing experienced farmers inside AgriTech firms to embed practical wisdom in the design of new technology.
A modernised agricultural curriculum with nationally recognised AgriTech micro-credentials, and a Digital Adoption and Extension Programme jointly funded by industry and government to accelerate on-farm uptake.
An Open Data platform so farmers benefit from the data they generate.
A co-funded AgriTech Adoption Fund to share investment risk, and a ‘regulatory sandbox’ to fast-track safe innovation trials.
A commitment to rural connectivity and services to ensure rural areas remain liveable for the skilled workforce AgriTech needs.
Bell says the choices in front of New Zealand have international as well as domestic stakes.
“Global trends towards traceability, sustainability and efficiency mean that if we don’t embrace these technologies, we’ll be left behind – there won’t be a market for New Zealand products,” she says. “That’s why it’s vital we invest, but with the right policy settings for rural communities.”
The paper calls on the Government to set policy direction, create enabling conditions, and invest in the infrastructure needed to accelerate AgriTech adoption – including connectivity, risk-sharing financing tools, adaptive regulation, and targeted incentives that reward both innovation and emissions reduction.
“We can build rural communities that attract talent and investment, farming systems that are productive and regenerative, and a sector that is recognised globally for sustainable practices. The technology exists. What we need now is the policy framework and the partnerships to put it to work,” Bell says.
The Helen Clark Foundation is an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank based at AUT in Auckland. It was set up to generate ideas and policy recommendations that contribute to a fair, equitable and prosperous New Zealand. Find out more at helenclark.foundation.
The foundation has published Growing Innovation: the next wave of AgriTech for rural New Zealand in partnership with the New Zealand Rural Land Company. It draws on interviews with primary producers, co-operatives, levy bodies, venture capital firms, and public sector representatives, and on desktop research substantiating those interviews.
Source: Scoop Media
