Purua's transformation capped with Ahuwhenua award
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
It’s the first time all three have been displayed at once since the horticulture trophy was contested for the first time in 2020. The Ahuwhenua trophy competition is designed to recognise the top Māori farms in dairy, sheep and beef and horticulture and is rotated around these on a three year cycle.
About 70 people, including the Minister of Agriculture, the head of MPI, Māori and pakeha agribusiness leaders, past winners of the Ahuwhenua trophy and the Young Māori Farmer, attended the launch.
Past winner of the sheep and beef trophy in 2015 and Chair of the Ahuwhenua Trust Management Committee, which runs the competition, Nukuhia Hadfield, spoke about the significance of having all the trophies together for the first time.
She told the gathering that the Ahuwhenua competition gives Māori farmers a great platform to put themselves forward and to share their experiences. She says simply by entering the competition they get the benefit of benchmarking and feedback from a very experienced judging panel. Hadfield says such advice is invaluable in helping them set their future strategic direction.
She says becoming a finalists and winner allowed she and her husband Bart to grow professionally and validated a lot of what they were doing.
“It gave us confidences to grow and expand our business and at times took us out of our comfort zone but in the end we are all the more resilient for it,” she says.
