Plant & Food Research’s Vaughn Bell has seen a lot of mealybugs in his time, but even he was stunned to see photos of infestations in Marlborough this past vintage.

One aspect of the Pinot Noir Programme is taking a reductionist approach to conduct research on individual berries and is set to make scientific history.

With funding of $10.3 million, the five-year Pinot Noir research programme is already breaking ground in terms of knowledge of this fickle grape and capricious wine.

The key to using a catch crop to reduce onfarm nitrate leaching is to get it in the ground as soon as possible after winter feeding, says Plant and Food scientist Dr Brendon Malcolm.

Two New Zealanders were named as winners in the recent trans-Tasman 2018 Growth Awards run by agriculture multinational Syngenta.

The battle against Leafroll virus and mealy bug vectors has been lucky in having one Hawke’s Bay scientist on its side. Mary Shanahan talks to that man – Vaughn Bell from Plant and Food.

AGRONOMY TRIALS and aeroplanes were among the topics aired during the Foundation for Arable Research’s South Canterbury and North Otago field day late last month.

SCIENCE AND Innovation Minister Steven Joyce says Government will invest $1.75 million to fund New Zealand-Singapore collaborative research projects on the development of food products with validated health benefits.

A TEAM OF New Zealand researchers from AgResearch and Plant & Food Research has unlocked an elaborate code to discover how coloured pigments in plants form.

NEW RESEARCH is being funded to help the potato industry fight the insect intruder - the tomato-potato psyllid.