increase font size
Nanaia Mahuta,
Māori Development Minister, Nania Mahuta says horticulture is an important and emerging sector for Māori.
She says it not only provides good returns to Māori Trusts and Incorporations, but also provides career pathways for Māori people and Whanau.
Mahuta quotes a recent statistic suggesting a 300% growth in Māori horticulture in the past 14 years, with more growth predicted. She says 3800 Māori are employment in the horticulture sector and make up 17% of the total sector.
“The total growth output of Māori farms is $220m with more room to improve capacity and capability in the sector. In particular it offers excellent opportunities for our whanau in the manual trades and labour who are seeking a better life. We also seen a trend of younger people wanting to come and live and work on their own whenua.”
Mahuta says her role is to ensure that Māori are included in the economic opportunities which create sustainable social outcomes and advance our people. She says the Ahuwhenua Awards are one of the tools which help Māori people to gain the confidence to showcase their achievements.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition recognised the significant contribution of the Māori agriculture sector.
He says this year’s finalists are part of an emerging group of people who making a positive impact on a multimillion-dollar industry and are among some of the best across the country.
OPINION: The Hound reckons our government and its wokester surrogates' current obsession with re-hashing past Māori grievances and implementing things like co-governance is doing more harm to race relations in the country than the opposite.
The country's horticulturalists have been urged to get in behind the controversial He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) agricultural emissions plan.
The main beneficiaries of the EU FTA will be kiwifruit, onions, honey, wine and seafood.
NZ's horticultural exports have risen in dollar terms, but at the same time, percentage wise, the tariffs these incur have dropped by nearly two thirds since 2004.
Pretty impressive - that's how Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor describes MPI's latest prediction that horticulture exports will hit the record $7 billion mark in 2023.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Two major red meat sector projects are getting up to a combined $1.7 million in funding from the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
