Wairoa Mayor: Road upgrades between Napier and Wairoa will boost safety and accessibility
The road between Napier and Wairoa is on the mend.
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.
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
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