Three pilot projects spanning horticulture, livestock health and future fibre will receive AGMARDT funding as part of The Common Ground – a platform to drive greater collaboration in New Zealand’s food & fibre sector.
Launched in September 2024 by AGMARDT, The Common Ground is a report series and sector-wide engagement process focussed on strengthening collaboration across the sector’s 150+ industry good organisations.
“This next phase of The Common Ground is about turning the feedback from launch into on-the-ground action” says AGMARDT General Manager Lee-Ann Marsh.
“More than 100 individuals and groups participated in roundtables, provided feedback or applied to be a Common Ground pilot project. That considered input helped us understand ‘where-to-next’, and we’re proud to be supporting three groups that are ready to make impact in critical areas, with the potential for sector-wide gains and learning.”
AGMARDT is funding three diverse pilot projects, each demonstrating different collaboration models across critical challenges and opportunities in the food & fibre sector. These include:
- Strengthening Horticulture Through Collaboration. New Zealand’s third largest food & fibre industry has a simple mission – to double farmgate value by 2035. But with more than 100 different crops and 20 different product group entities, it’s an industry grappling with complexity in how it currently collaborates. This pilot will build on the Aotearoa Horticulture Action plan to unite the industry – aligning to a common goal of delivering maximum value on every levy dollar growers invest.
- Coalition Against Drench Resistance. Drench resistance is a major challenge facing the livestock sector. With no new formulas expected, the solutions left to producers – like farm system change and new technology – are complex and difficult to deploy alone. To back producers to turn the corner on drench resistance, this pilot will form a coalition of willing parties across the drench ecosystem. Together, this diverse group will map the system behind the drench resistance challenge and develop a collective action plan to solve it.
- Future of Fibre Aotearoa. Despite world-class quality and innovative R&D capability, New Zealand’s fibre has long been undervalued. From wool to hemp, leather, cashmere, harakeke, forestry derived fibres and more – this is a diverse sector with the potential to become a cornerstone of the bioeconomy, if it can overcome its fragmentation, scale and under-investment challenges. This pilot aims to connect the full value chain of New Zealand’s fibre, textiles and biomaterials – lifting the sector from commodity export to high-value, design-led regenerative and circular products and systems.
Alongside the pilot projects, The Common Ground has launched the Collaboration Kit – an ongoing collection of tools and resources to support effective collaboration. The kit currently includes case studies of successful food & fibre partnerships and a report on the Collaboration Spectrum framework.
“Our aim is to make collaboration accessible and actionable” says Marsh. “As the pilots progress, we’ll be sharing their learnings – what’s working and what’s not – so others can benefit without having to reinvent the wheel.”
Marsh says that The Common Ground approach has changed, and continues to change, based on feedback from people from across the sector.
“Over the last year we were reminded that co-operation is in the DNA of the sector – so we don’t need a new entity to kickstart it. Instead, we see our role as being more agile – listening when innovators tell us where collaboration is hardest and supporting them with the learning and funding to move forward where they can, with what they have.”
“In many cases, we are dealing with longstanding trust deficits and legacies of failed projects” says Marsh. “It takes a lot of courage to have another go and put the past behind us. That takes time and consensus building. Even this launch has reinforced that context matters when it comes to collaboration, and urgent issues can require slowing right down to go forward” says Marsh.
The Common Ground continues to invite discussion and feedback from across the food & fibre sector. The pilot project reports, collaboration kit and opportunities to provide feedback are available at www.thecommonground.org.nz.