Nutrient management future on the agenda

Friday 10 February 2017

The world's leading minds in sustainable nutrient management met at Massey University this week to discuss the future of the complex science.

Nutrient management future on the agenda - image1

Dr Ranvir Singh, Professor Mike Hedley, Tommy Dalgaard and Brian Kronvang.

Last updated: Thursday 26 May 2022

The world’s leading minds in sustainable nutrient management met at Massey University this week to discuss the future of the complex science.

The 30th Fertilizer and Lime Research Centre annual workshop, Science And Policy: Nutrient Management Challenges For The Next Generation, focused on nutrient management in the future and its importance to New Zealand’s land-based industries.

Many of the country's brightest agriculture researchers and practitioners attend the event, with the conference attracting scientists, researchers, consultants, government officials of all levels, and progressive farmers who are concerned with primary production in New Zealand.

Keynote speaker Brian Kronvang, from Denmark’s Aarhus University, gave a presentation on 30 years of nutrient management in Denmark, focusing on the political mistakes and corrections to get the country back on track.

Other presentation themes included: smart tools and technologies, farm systems, fertiliser use, nutrient loss and attenuation, increasing productivity and reducing environmental footprint, contaminants and soil quality, and water management.

Another notable international speaker was Simon Blackmore from the United Kingdom’s National Centre for Precision Farming.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council manager of natural resources policy, Stephen Lamb, spoke on the Lake Rotorua Incentives Scheme. The goal of which is to achieve a permanent 100 tonne reduction in the discharge of nitrogen to Lake Rotorua by December 2022, by providing money to farmers who prove that they have applied less Nitrogen using the Overseer tool.

Fertilizer and Lime Research Centre director Professor Mike Hedley said the workshop tackled the big issue facing the sector, and how to farm sustainably within water quality limits.

“This is a complex problem to solve with well trained rural professionals, but the realisation is that reaching the goals won’t be measured in years but decades. The conference is designed to get experts from all fields together for debate and information transfer on topics that will get us moving forward in the same direction”.