NZAPI’s Data, Compliance and Technical Support Project is well underway this month. Funded from the MPI North Island Weather Events Fund, the project includes:
- Support to ensure that apple and pear growers are enabled to meet time-critical compliance requirements. For those growers with reduced income in 2023 due to losing all, or a portion, of their crops to flood waters.
- Funding the provision of expert technical advice to affected growers (e.g. tree health and bloom assessments, nutrient advice, orchard management advice, fruit maturity, replant or grafting advice).
- The collection of data (e.g. GIS and other mapping data) that will be used to identify and target appropriate support to affected growers.
Funding of services for growers includes First Aid and Growsafe Certification courses – available in Hastings/Napier and Gisborne. NZAPI has also arranged soil, water, and leaf testing services, and for growers to have on-orchard assistance with compliance requirements such as GlobalGAP.
For many growers, the cyclone not only took the crop but also took orchard signage, spray sheds, paperwork, and evidence. The purpose of this project is to ensure that growers are well supported in both compliance and technical activities so they can meet all requirements and grow a quality crop for 2024. While we know that flood affected growers have a significant amount of work ahead of them, we hope that this project will relieve some of the pressure that they are under.
Thanks to this project, the NZAPI Technical Field Days will continue, and regular meetings will commence in November so that growers can get together to discuss progress and compare outcomes of flood initiatives.
With a final cut-off date of 31 December 2023, NZAPI are committed to ensuring apple and pear growers are provided with all the assistance they need before this date.
