Short courses for all visa holders
Primary ITO has a wide range of work-based training options to help you grow the skills and knowledge of your staff in 2025.
The curator of the main gardens at Wellington’s Botanic Garden has been chosen to help inspire other New Zealanders to follow a horticultural career.
The Primary ITO has appointed Karl Noldan as its new ambassador for 2016 – to showcase the career pathways available within the burgeoning horticultural industry. “It’s really coming back in vogue,” Noldan says.
“It has become quite a trend, especially for people later in their careers, to step away from high-stress jobs and want to work with plants instead.”
Noldan himself has made several career U-turns. After many years of tertiary study, a year off doing labouring jobs then led to “an epiphany” that he wanted to work in the fresh air.
“My favourite subjects at school were graphic design and horticulture, but my family and teachers didn’t see a future for me in this area,” he explains.
“I never knew the horticultural industry could take me where it has and I am keen to ensure that horticulture is regarded as a desirable industry. It is a career path that is extremely diverse and rewarding, filled with passionate people.”
He placed third in the 2015 Young Horticulturalist of the Year Award and won the Primary ITO Career Development Award, earning a $3000 scholarship to assist with further study or attend a conference.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.

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