Taking our research to Maori communities

Helping New Zealand's Maori farms double their productivity from about $800 million to $1.6 billion by the year 2020 is AgResearch's goal. It's part of our 2020 Science strategy and was launched in our Maori Strategy Road Show in 2006.

AgResearch Maori Strategist Roger Pikia's 12-stop tour of the North Island provided Maori dairy, meat and wool farmers with scientific tools to help them realise their potential and, in doing so, significantly increase New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product.

A farmer himself, Roger says AgResearch sees a huge opportunity within the Maori sector to increase on-farm productivity.

"This is about raising awareness of AgResearch's intent to deliver sustainable economic and social benefit to Maori through its science research capability.

"This will be achieved through the implementation of a series of focused initiatives that align with the AgResearch Maori Strategy and its 2020 Science strategy.

"AgResearch, guided by these two strategies, will lead science and commercial research outcomes from projects with Maori to achieve the set targets."