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Ngai Tukairangi Trust chair Ratahi Cross.
One of the badly hit kiwifruit orchards in Hawke's Bay was the 40 hectare covered block owned by the Bay of Plenty based, Ngai Tukairangi Trust.
At the heart of the floods, trust chair Ratahi Cross had a narrow escape from drowning, as the rapidly rising floodwaters rose around him.
Most of the kiwifruit orchard had water through it and was badly damaged. But Cross is hopeful that they will be back to 80% production next year.
How to achieve this is something very dear to his heart. He says the conversations they are having at the moment is about how they recover the plants and bring them back to life.
"Kiwifruit is a very funny plant. It sulks and if it doesn't want to give you fruit for few year it won't," he told Hort News.
"So, what we have to do is encourage it to fruit next year and the year after. For us, it's about loving the plant. That may sound quite funny but Māori and growers generally believe that there is a connection between them and the plant itself," Cross explains.
"People believe plants don't think but we believe they do - so there becomes an attachment between the grower and their baby the plant."
Recovery for Māori is different to other orchardists, Cross claims.
He says they are not asking for much immediate help, but for help in the long haul.
He says Māori have no option but to stay on their land and make sure it is viable for four of five generations in the future.
Nearly three years on from Cyclone Gabrielle, Hawke's Bay apple orchardist Paul Paynter says they are still doing remedial work around their orchards and facing financial challenges.
If there was a silver lining in the tragedy that was Cyclone Gabrielle, for New Zealand Young Grower of the Year, Grace Fulford, it was the tremendous sense of community and seeing first-hand what good leadership looks like.
Listed carpet manufacturer, Bremworth is undertaking a $6 million expansion at its Napier plant more than two years after the site was heavily damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The road between Napier and Wairoa is on the mend.
The Good Carbon Farm has partnered with Tolaga Bay Heritage Charitable Trust to deliver its first project in Tairāwhiti Gisborne.
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
The avocado industry is facing an extremely challenging season with all parts of the supply chain, especially growers, being warned to prepare for any eventuality.
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