The call is out for nominations as the arable industry gets ready to celebrate its next crop of innovators and achievers.
“The second annual New Zealand Arable Industry Awards was a sell-out last year and we’re expecting the 2024 event will be just as popular,” Federated Farmers arable chairperson David Birkett says.
Held at Air Force Museum in Christchurch on August 15, the formal dinner event will include the launch of an Arable Hall of Fame.
Federated Farmers, the Foundation for Arable Research, United Wheatgrowers and the Grain & Seed Trade Association first came together in 2022 for a pan-sector celebration of the cream of the industry’s growers, researchers and leaders.
At that inaugural event, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to AgResearch stalwart and internationally renowned grassland farms systems expert Dr Phil Rolston.
“Now we’re bringing in a Hall of Fame, an enduring record of those individuals like Dr Rolston who have excelled and made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s arable industry,” Birkett says.
Nominations are open for Grower of the Year in maize, cereal and seed categories, and a team of judges will select one of these winners as 2024 Arable Farmer of the Year.
Other awards are for Positive Environmental Impact, Agronomist of the Year, and Working Together.
As well as recognising individual and team effort, the awards are about highlighting to the rest of New Zealand a farming sector that tends to fly under the radar.
A 2022 Business and Economic Research Ltd report noted the arable industry contributes $932 million to GDP, with exports of around $250 million each year.
“Not only are we world leaders in seed production – 60% of the world’s radish seed, 50% of white clover seed and 40% of global carrot seed, for example – the maize, feed and grass seed we grow is crucial for the New Zealand dairy and meat producers, who drive the lion’s share of our export earnings,” Birkett says.
“The awards are a chance for growers to escape long hours in the field for some fun, to salute their best and brightest and to underline what we bring to employment and the economy.”
Full award nomination details at www.arableawards.co.nz
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
