increase font size
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor with winners of the 2020 Biosecurity Supreme Award Miraka Dairy's Grant Jackson (centre) and Richard Wyeth.
Biosecurity is even more important to New Zealand as the country starts to recover from Covid-19.
That’s the message from Penny Nelson, head of biosecurity at the Ministry for Primary Industries. She told Rural News, at the recent biosecurity awards at Parliament, that biosecurity underpins our primary sector exports – as well as many of the special taonga we have. She says we just can’t afford to have big incursions at the moment.
“I was interested to hear that in the KPMG’s agribusiness survey, biosecurity has been the top issue for the past 11 years. I think New Zealanders realise we have a special way of life and we want to keep it.”
Nelson says the awards, which have been held for the last four years, are designed to celebrate the great things that a range of people in communities and industry are doing for biosecurity. She says every year there has been an increase in the number of entries and as word gets out about the awards, more and more people are becoming involved.
Close to 200 people attended the awards ceremony held in Parliament’s banquet hall and hosted by the Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor.
Taupo-based dairy company Miraka took the top honours – winning both the industry award and the supreme award for its Te Ara Miraka programme, which boosted biosecurity awareness and culture change within its farmer supplier base.
The programme incentivises farmers, by way of an increase in their annual milk payout, to improve a whole range of practices on their farms. These include environmental, milk quality, food safety, animal welfare, health and safety and biosecurity.
The awards recognised the fact that Miraka had identified that biosecurity was missing from the programme and set about working with external parties to develop a special training course. Each farmer was trained in biosecurity risk assessment, risk mitigations and how to create and implement a biosecurity plan within their business.
The supreme award was presented to the Miraka team by O’Connor who praised the company and its staff for its initiative and strong commitment to biosecurity.
Government investment in on-the-ground efforts by farmers to improve land management practices has passed a milestone, with more than 170 catchment groups nationwide now receiving support, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
Dairy farmers are set to benefit from a $17 million beef genetics programme backed by the red meat sector and the Government.
A Southland dairy industry leader says the Government's response to worker shortages in the dairy industry is a "cop out".
The first stage of one-way quarantine-free travel with Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu will begin in October, initially for RSE workers, Covid-19 Response Minister and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor have announced.
The contribution of NZ's kiwifruit industry came in for some high praise at a special function at Parliament, just before the latest Covid lockdowns.
OPINION: Well-known professional protestor, John Minto has run off at the mouth without checking his facts.
A mate of the Hound's thinks it was more than a bit dodgy when DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel…
