North Otago farmer Jane Smith standing for Ravensdown board seat
North Otago farmer Jane Smith is standing for the Ravensdown South Island director seat.
It aims to build, grow and invest in Ag-IP and innovations, such as EcoPond and ClearTech, turning them into valued products and solutions that can be used on-farm to combat climate change, and create enhanced productivity.
Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack says Agnition is a response to the co-operative’s strategy ‘Smarter farming for a better New Zealand’.
“Ravensdown has an impressive track record of recognising, researching, and bringing to fruition technologies and services that enhance our shareholders’ abilities to interconnect precision-based performance with long-term sustainability,” he says.
“The focus is now on taking innovations to market faster, getting them on-farm and providing a return on investment for our shareholders.”
Diack says that supplying nutrients to New Zealand farmers is still core to the Ravensdown business.
“While Agnition will have the agility and expertise of a venture capital type company, it will have an important advantage of farmer insight when it comes to developing and launching on-farm innovation.”
Jasper van Halder, previously a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company, has been appointed as Agnition’s chief executive.
He will have responsibility for a portfolio of existing Ravensdown investments, including C-Dax Agricultural Solutions, Cropmark Seeds, Southstar Technologies and Analytical Research Laboratory (ARL).
