YOUR INDUSTRY
LIGHTENING THE TOUCH ON FOOD PRODUCTION Glenys Christian Chief executive of Onions NZ, James Kuperus, says the programme is very much part of the industry’s aim to be a global leader in reducing the use of chemical inputs. “We’re never going to be the cheapest producer of onions, but we can grow a quality product sustainably,” he says. Under the ALT programme, demonstrations are carried out for the good of all Onion NZ members and at a commercial scale so that small or individual growers don’t have to take on the potential risks of becoming early adopters of new crop protection methods. “We hope that will speed their uptake,” says James.
Chief executive of Onions New Zealand, James Kuperus, left, with Pukekoke grower, Howe Young, who is managing the onion trial
Vegetable growers in New Zealand could soon be producing food with a much-reduced need for chemical sprays. Onions were successfully grown on a four-hectare demonstration block in Pukekohe recently without the use of the chemical, mancozeb, to control downy mildew. “We’ve proved we can do this,” says Howe Young, who manages the plot. “It was an average yielding crop, but it was quite dry and we weren’t irrigating.” The trial forms part of the A Lighter Touch (ALT) programme which was established in April 2020 with the aim of changing the approach to food production by transitioning from reliance on agrichemical pest management to a more agroecological approach to crop protection. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has committed $11 million in funding through its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFFF) fund, with another $16 million coming from the horticulture industry. The programme’s key partners are the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), Zespri and HortNZ. 32 NZGROWER : JUNE 2022
The plan is for four crops; onions, broccoli, barley and potatoes, to be rotated on the trial site, with onion demonstration coming into its second year. Pukekohe was chosen because of the support from local vegetable growers and wider industry, with regular field days held so the paddock can be walked and the results seen up close. James says downy mildew control is a problem that onion growers quickly needed to adjust to. Onions NZ started providing a daily email forecast of the disease risk as part of a weather report so growers could make decisions as to whether they really needed to spray or if this long-used insurance policy wasn’t really required. An updated model has recently been developed under ALT and growers have supported its continuation as a good investment. The next step is to look at a demonstration using alternative methods to control thrips, based on research carried out by Plant & Food Research Ltd (PFR) in Lincoln, Christchurch. Antony Heywood, Vegetables New Zealand Inc chief executive, says its first demonstration on broccoli will look at how biodiversity, particularly amongst plants and insects, can benefit the agroecosystem. “We’ve talked about the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concept for many years and some crops are further ahead than others,” Antony says. When bringing biological control agents (BCAs) into a monoculture, it is necessary to build up numbers after an initial introduction and that requires either headlands, plant borders or inter-row plants where they can multiply. They’ll then reach a level where spraying will be significantly reduced because they can effectively control the targeted pest.
