NZTech Inform – Kiwi world-first!

Digital adoption needed to help fight climate change

Last week the Government announced plans for Kiwi farmers to pay for emissions by 2025 in a world-first climate plan. In the rhetoric that followed, there was very little discussion about the need for Kiwi farmers to adopt technology to help reduce emissions.

AgriTechNZ, recently completed a large study (free to download) of over 1000 farmers and growers to gain insight into digital adoption within the agriculture sector. Contrary to many people’s expectations, 59 percent of farmers lean toward the adoption of digital technologies on their farms. However, this still means 41 percent are not keen on digital technology. Despite a
number of trailblazers across all sub-sectors and age groups, on the whole, the willingness to adopt early is lower than outside the primary sector.

Currently digital adoption is highest in business management tools and lowest in areas such as water and effluent management. However, as environmental pressures increase these technologies will be essential for helping farmers manage their environmental impact.

Biotechnology will also be an important technology for New Zealand’s agri-sector in the longer term in order to continue to grow with a lower environmental impact. This will be one of the focus areas for BioTechNZ members attending the AusBioTech Summit in Perth next week.

Next year, BioTechNZ is hosting the 2023 Life Sciences Summit in Wellington. The event will bring together New Zealand’s biotech and life sciences industries across all sectors – agricultural, environmental, industrial & human health – working to solve the biggest challenges on the planet.

As New Zealand’s reputation in tech continues to grow our global tech story campaign, See Tomorrow First, is going to be used to attract talent. However, to do this well we need greater detail on how the global skills shortage is affecting you and your business. Help us maximise the impact of Tech Story activities offshore. Please complete this short (8 questions, 2 minutes!) Talent Needs survey on your talent needs.

Our Tech Story team would also like to know what marketing and storytelling upskilling tools you would find useful, and more importantly, what you would actually use! Please complete this short Storytelling Tools survey and you could win a 1-on-1 coaching session with a brand and marketing expert, thanks to NZ Story.

Ngā mihi Graeme Muller
CEO
NZTech