An agricultural research partnership aimed at improving pasture grasses and lifting the performance of livestock farming has been boosted by a $7.3 million government investment.
The funding, over five years, will be provided through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's research partnerships programme and will be matched by industry funding.
Pastoral Genomics is an industry-led research partnership between DairyNZ, Beef and Lamb New Zealand, Grasslands Innovation, NZ Agriseeds, DEEResearch, AgResearch and Dairy Australia.
The objective is to provide pastoral farmers with better forage cultivars that will increase productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability of New Zealand's pastoral farming systems.
The partnership intends to use non-regulated biotechnologies, including genomic selection that does not involve genetic modification, to help progress breeding and commercialisation of high-performing forages for grazing livestock.
The forage cultivars are expected to have improved nutritional content and be more resilient to drought and disease.
In a statement, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said the research was ''strategically important'' to New Zealand.
New Zealand had a strong primary sector and just over half of the country's total exports of goods and services by value were primary products.
''We need to build on this strength with constant innovation, and by taking full advantage of our strength in agricultural technologies,'' Mr Joyce said.
The investment in that partnership was expected to boost sustainability of New Zealand's pastoral farms and increase the value of exports by the sector.
Pastoral Genomics recently appointed a new board, which included five new directors. The appointments heralded a new governance model with a shift away from a representative governance approach to a board which included a mix of representative and independent directors.
The board comprised three directors representing the investors as well as four independent directors who have been appointed for their specific skills and experience.
It is chaired by Dr Mike Dunbier (independent), with members Alister Body (representing the dairy sector), George Tatham (sheep, beef and deer sectors), Dr Derek Woodfield (commercial plant breeding sector), Prof Peter Langridge (independent), Courtney Inch (independent), and Chris Garland (independent).
