Primary sector failing the R&D test

Sir Peter Gluckman last month told the AGCARM conference in Wellington there are huge upsides for the primary sector in investing in R&D. He noted the sector was still living off some science done at Ruakura 30 years ago. 

Gluckman claims the sector has become wedded to the idea that research is the Government’s responsibility. 

He says pastoral agriculture has been built on decades of R&D, disproportionately funded from the public purse. It’s disappointing to see how little the private sector has helped co-fund the proposed food safety research centre. 

Gluckman believes the sector appears to find it difficult to think more than a few years ahead.

“It needs to think long term. Quite clearly the agricultural systems of the world are changing and we have climate change and changing consumer preferences; so we have to move up the value chain,” he told the conference goers. 

“All that has to be based on science and that science has a long life cycle – seven-ten years, at least, for much of this stuff. There is an enormous upside for New Zealand if we invest properly in R&D in the primary sector, but we must get beyond commodities and think strategically about what we could do to lift the sector.” 

Gluckman says while the primary sector appears to have some difficult years ahead, he believes this is not the time to hunker down, but rather to invest strategically in research and innovation and look out up to two decades ahead. He says the thinking in R&D has to be beyond the consumer.

“Consumers have different fashions and that’s part of it. But beyond commodities you have consumer driven demand for high quality cuts of meat, for better cheeses, wine and kiwifruit,” he explained. 

“But there is one more layer of value beyond that – health. Especially in Asia there is growing understanding that nutrition, health and food are all linked. We need to do the science that better links those things and get the evidence base.” 

Gluckman says the NZ private sector’s investment in the primary sector is so small that you’d need “a very big microscope” to see it.

“We have one of the lowest private sector investments in R&D. It’s understandable at one level – the company structure is different. In most countries the private sector spend comes from large companies – in fact 75% comes from companies employing over 250 people and they are the multinationals.”

But while Gluckman concedes it’s hard for companies to engage in R&D, it must be done. He says R&D is not cutting meat differently or necessarily developing new fruit and vegetables – it’s about getting serious added value.