Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce announced on August 28 that University of Otago biochemistry associate professor Peter Dearden was awarded a grant of $920,000 to undertake research to develop bee-friendly insecticides.
The funding, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise's science investment round, would be allocated to Prof Dearden during the next two years.
The contract would come into effect on October 1.
Federated Farmers Bee Industry Group committee member Michael Vercoe said he was ''absolutely'' excited by the news.
''By nature an insecticide is bad for bees, full stop,'' Mr Vercoe said.
''So anything we can do to reduce the risks to bees in general has got to be a good thing.''
There were many insecticides available at present which were supposedly bee-friendly, but were harmful to bees if they were misused, he said.
So to look for chemicals which were ineffective against bees was a step in the right direction.
''It's no mean feat if they can achieve it,'' Mr Vercoe said.
''The University of Otago and Peter are pretty innovative. The way they go about things, they have got the ability to do it [create bee-friendly insecticides].''
When contacted by Southern Rural Life last week, Prof Dearden said he hoped to develop the next generation of insecticides, which would be ''effective against pests, but won't affect bees''.
''We aim to develop novel insecticides which will be broad-range, but bee-friendly,'' he said.
During the next two years, he hoped to develop a system to screen for chemicals which targeted insects while leaving honeybees and bumblebees unharmed.
The idea developed out of research he undertook trying to understand how the honeybee genome worked, he said.
As a species, honeybees had unique genetics, allowing for the possibility of targeted insecticides.
''We started to identify these things that are a bit weird [in honeybees] and might make good targets for novel insecticides,'' Prof Dearden said.
In three or four years, he hoped to have identified chemicals which would be appropriate for ''novel insecticides'' and have started to assess commercial interest, he said.
- Timothy Brown