Toy or tool?

Growing is full of uncertainty, thanks to the weather, consumer demand, labour supply and other factors that no grower can fully control. 

Unlike the United States, New Zealand is a nation of small growers. In the United States, they can play around with innovation to an extent that we cannot here because their horticulture industry is huge, and has access to far more capital than we do in New Zealand. 

At a recent grower event, discussion about technology lead one grower to say that when they think about technology, their first question is, ‘is it a toy or a tool?’, because technology ultimately ‘needs to make us money’. They then went on to reflect that sometimes a toy can become a tool, but then advances in another area can result in the tool becoming more of a toy again. What they were referring to here was drone technology being taken over by satellite technology, when it comes to getting data about plant growth and health as usefully and cost effectively as possible. 

To stay ahead, growers really must be aware of all the forces and developments in their operating environment, particularly as in New Zealand, while we can do things faster – or at least we should be able to do things faster because we are small – we don’t have the capital – because we are small. 

The blueprint for research and development in New Zealand was set just after the reforms of the 1980s, when the Crown Research Institutes were formed. The model that was set up then is essentially one of competing for available investment capital, which we know in New Zealand is comparatively small particularly on an international scale.

Research and development, and commercialisation takes time and money. Both are finite, for example, when you think of the response that is needed to climate change – given indications that climate change is happening faster than predicted – and the fact that money doesn’t grow on trees, in New Zealand as well as in countries like the United States.

In the United States, Western Growers estimates that it takes US$50-100 million to get a piece of innovation to market. That is why they say it is in everyone’s best interests for innovators to fail fast so the available capital can be concentrated as quickly as possible on the next success story, rather than wasted on something that wasn’t fundamentally right. 

The other point that Western Growers has made is that technology in our industry must be able to be used across multiple crops, given we have more than 100 crops in production. That certainly adds complexity. Bringing the challenge back to New Zealand, our vegetable growers – speaking from experience – report that what works for our arable industry doesn’t necessarily work for our vegetable industry. 

Western Growers advice for New Zealand was to find a technology solution that solved our problems – as well as the rest of the world’s, and work together to bring that technology to market so that as many growers as possible can take advantage of it.

This is sound advice, particularly when across the world, we are all facing the same growing challenges. This approach will ensure we separate the toys from the tools more quickly, and respond with more speed to New Zealand and the world’s challenges, in an environment when time and money are finite, no matter how big you are or where you are growing in the world.