Unsung heroes under the soil
Much of the scientific work being carried out at the Massey University led regenerative agriculture project, Whenua Haumanu, is below the ground.
Yeun An won the prestigious William Gearish Memorial Award. It was presented to her by Professor Nicola Shadbolt at a gala dinner in Palmerston North attended by more than 200 Massey students, staff and primary industry leaders.
Auckland-born An was two years into a chemical engineering degree at Auckland University when she worked on a dairy farm during the summer break.
"I suddenly got hooked and realised that agriculture was from me, so changed my study path and came to Massey," she says.
Two years into her degree at Massey she got offered a role as a shepherd on a sheep station in Tasmania and completed her final degree year by distance. She's also worked on a cattle station and, after receiving her prize, is flying back to her job in Tasmania. Her parents were from Korea, but she was born in NZ. Long term she hopes to get a job in the trade policy area.
Another Aucklander, Katya de Silva, won the top prize for excellence in agriculture. She says although a city girl, she loves the outdoors and when at school she picked up on the fact that people had a poor understanding of the primary sector and what farmers do.
"People don't realise the challenges that farmers face navigating issues such as climate change and environment," she says.
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While doing her degree, de Silva has been able to get out on farms and meet people and says in the long term she'd like to work in the environment area to try and help farmers work through the many issues they face. However, in the coming year she'll be working for Te Tumu Paera, the Maori Trustee, as a whenua services co-ordinator.
Massey's top horticulture students Brooke Challis was another student who just fell in love with the primary sector. She was doing a zoology degree, but after working part time on an apple orchard in Hastings in 2021/22, decided to change and went on to do a degree in horticulture. Challis says while at secondary school at Taradale, little if any mention was made about the career opportunities in agriculture and especially horticulture.
"People don't see it as a viable career option and don't see the oppportunities that are there. You can do lots of things within the sector such as marketing, innovation, business and science," she says.
Challis says she plans to continue working in the orchard until next season's harvest and then may look for a research opportunity.
