Primary sector science roadmap: Te ao tūroa

[Video begins with a close-up shot of Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor. His name and title appears on the bottom of the screen.]

Sir Peter: "The primary industry has got the greatest growth potential perhaps of any of our industries if we use science properly."

[While Sir Peter is speaking, a man is shown taking measurements in a vineyard. A harvesting vehicle is shown harvesting in the vineyard.]

Sir Peter: "We've just got to get over the mindset that agriculture is low technology. It's in fact very high technology. Although I think we're only a small part up the ladder."

[Professor Cather Simpson of Auckland University starts talking while laser equipment in the Photon Factory is shown.]

Professor Simpson: "We really need to take advantage of the fact that we have not just got really strong primary industries here but we have absolutely fantastic high-tech innovative researchers."

Dr Mark Ferguson, Production Science Manager, New Zealand Merino: "We don't get stuck in what is traditionally done. We think about how we can – we look at a production system and how we can tweak that to have a more valuable product coming out from New Zealand."

[While Dr Ferguson is talking, 2 scientists are shown working on microscopes. Camera moves to close-up of hand adjusting one of the microscopes. Image from microscope on computer screen appears. Dr Ferguson is shown pulling some wool with his hand to measure it.]

Helen Mussely, General Manager, Plant & Food Research: "For me, the way our science gets used is the really important thing."

[While she is talking, video of fish swimming in a new type of fishing net is shown. A person on a fishing vessel brings the net on board. A small boat moves across the water. Underwater mussel lines are shown, and are brought up onto the boat by a person.]

Helen: "That it goes to help industry to do things better, to make their industry more sustainable in the long run, both economically, but obviously environmentally as well."

[Craige Mackenzie, farmer and CEO/Director, AgriOptics New Zealand stands in front of irrigation equipment that is operating on his farm.]

Craige: "We start with things like auto-steer on the tractor and once you have it on one, you've got to have it on all of them. So, you turn at the end, hit the button and it automatically drives to the far end. But that allows us to spatially apply different products and fertiliser in different areas to match exactly what the crop needs."

[While he is talking, a tractor is shown being driven across a paddock with spray equipment.]

Mr Mackenzie: "The returns are huge. The opportunities to even the crops up – it just means that we can really drive productivity without actually necessarily using as much fertiliser."

Ellen Ashmore, Food chemistry scientist, ESR, stands in a laboratory. While talking, we see Ellen pouring liquid from a bottle into a funnel. There is a close-up of a beaker with Ellen's hands behind holding a pipette. Ellen places the pipette in a stopper at the top of beaker.]

Ellen: "There is much more need to collaborate with those producers overseas and the importers and exporters. And that brings together scientists from all over the world, but also from the different disciplines of science."

[Close-up of Associate Professor Māui Hudson, University of Waikato, who is sitting down. His name and title appear at the bottom of the screen.]

Māui: "Certainly within the Māori space, when thinking about Mātauranga Māori, all of it has been informed by an evidence base."

[Close-up of pine tree branch with 3 men walking in the background. They walk down a forest road and talk to each other.]

Māui: "Just like there is no end point to science, it's something that's constantly evolving and we're developing our understanding and deepening our knowledge. We do the same thing both with mātauranga and also the relationship between the 2 and how we can use them."

[Close-up of Traci Houpapa, Chair of the Federation of Māori Authorities and Landcorp New Zealand. Her name and title appear in the bottom of the screen.]

Traci: "Uplift and performance, productivity and profitability is going to come from research and technology, is going to come from innovation."

[Woman putting labels on small jars in a lab]

Dr Mark Harris, Global Marketing Manager, Gallagher, sits at a desk. His name and title appear in the bottom of the screen.

Mark: "Innovation has become part of our culture. So everyone who works here knows that what we do is we redefine the future. We try and improve the lives of our customers, you know, so we're constantly trying to change the way farmers use our technology."

[Shot of 4 people working at a production line.]

[Person putting stake into the ground with cow in the background.]

[Close-up of Aaron Gunn, Technical and Resource Manager, Port Blakely NZ. His name and title show on bottom of screen.]

Aaron Gunn: "There's so much more complexity to the forestry sector. It's not just a person on chainsaw or cutting a tree down. Our field operations are changing so much. We've got robotics coming in. We've got UAVs. We've got laser technologies that we use from the sky. It's a constantly changing world, and it's just so fascinating."

[Forestry data images on a computer screen. Aaron working at the computer and looking at images on the computer screen. Image of a forest block.]

[Close-up of Lucy Griffiths, Marketing Consultant and Owner of Innov8 Aotearoa. Her name and title are shown at bottom of the screen.]

Lucy: "You can be working with, you know, the Callaghan Institutes and the Riddetts and be creating products that are high value and branding those – and then carrying them to the world with our New Zealand imagery."

[Close-ups of New Zealand food products.]

[Close-up of Ian Proudfoot, Global head of Agribusiness, KPMG. His name and title are shown at the bottom of the screen.]

Ian Proudfoot: "We've got this challenge – we're not local. But we can use technology to make ourselves local and that's a huge opportunity for us to reposition where we sit in the supply chain."

[Close-up of pipette being used, and 2 researchers working together. One is stirring something in a bucket and the other researcher is using the pipette. Ian voiceover,

[Close-up of Dr Ian Ferguson, Departmental science advisor, MPI. His name and title are shown at the bottom of the screen.]

Ian Ferguson: "There's a lot of areas where science is used now. And I think what I would want to see – and hope that young people want to see – is that this is somewhere they can develop a passion."

[End of transcript]