Friday, March 29, 2024

Food and fibres future depends on talent

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Fostering talent, shifting mindsets and addressing sustainability are keys to the future success of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector, according to new Agmardt research.
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Lee-Ann Marsh says new research will help Agmardt understand the perspectives and needs of different groups.

Fostering talent, shifting mindsets and addressing sustainability are keys to the future success of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector, according to new Agmardt research.

About 230 past and prospective Agmardt funding applicants were surveyed during the first week of December, with general manager Lee-Ann Marsh saying the research was designed to better understand the needs of applicants.

She says it will also help inform how Agmardt targets its funding, partnerships and other support initiatives.

“This research will help us understand the perspectives and needs of different groups so we can empower them as best we can,” Marsh said.

She said one of the strongest themes to come out of the research is that the future success of food and fibres depends on attracting, retaining and unleashing the talent of NZ’s best and brightest.

“It’s exciting that we’re seeing huge talent potential across the board, including in underrepresented groups in agriculture, such as younger people, women and Māori agribusiness,” she said.

The research also highlights a growing awareness that innovation needs to be market connected and spread across the entire value chain, rather than confined within traditional areas and roles as it has been in the past.

Navigating the funding landscape was the biggest barrier to innovation identified by the research (43% of respondents), followed by costs (38%) and pulling the right people together (34%).

The research also identified opportunities for the sector to prioritise, including supporting the growth and development of agritech (40%), developing and promoting more premium products (38%) and developing sustainable options using natural resources (30%). 

Sustainability is seen as the most critical challenge to the sector’s future success (43%), followed closely by ‘short-termism’ and reactive and narrow thinking (34%) and attracting and retaining talent (32%).

Marsh said the issue of mindset came through strongly as a critical challenge, which she said indicates that people recognise the need to think beyond the here and now to ensure the sector is well positioned for the future.

She said Agmardt will be using the input from the research along with other insights to develop an action plan for achieving its strategy.

The organisation has identified that strategic partnerships will play a bigger role in uniting the industry and in helping to uncover new ways of tackling complex challenges.

“We will continue to work with trusted partners as well as seek out new ones to unlock impact at scale,” she said.

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