The oYonuesng When you’re part of an industry susceptible to uncontrollable factors...weather, disease, global recession or natural disasters…it’s even more important to support a culture of collaboration and innovation amongst young leaders charged with successfully surviving future adversity and maintaining New Zealand as a significant food producer. But is the industry that will rely on those young upcomers doing enough to support them now? ELLIE Anderson – in announcing the continued sponsorship of supporters for the 2017 Young Horticulturalist of the Year competition – has one succinct message for the industry that feeds off the outstanding young people that filter through her network. Competitions like hers, the RNZIH Education Trust chair warns, are not just “fluffy, nice-to-have token events” to make the industry feel good. They are a crucial tool in ensuring enough trained professionals bolster the country’s food industry when those at the top today are long gone. “Competitions like Young Horticulturalist foster innovation, cross-sector collaboration and leadership development which are essential to making sure New Zealand stays competitive and at the forefront of global food supply,” Anderson says starkly. “I want to urge New Zealanders in primary business, particularly the media and also producers, to better support competitions like Young Horticulturist because they’re essential to making sure we’re up for any challenge.” Anderson gets support from a handful of committed companies, but numbers could be better. “Within the RNZIH Education Trust that runs the Young Horticulturalist, we’re all volunteers who commit money, time and resources to ensuring we build capable leaders who are innovative and collaborative,” she 14 SEPTEMBER 2017 says. “But we can’t do it alone. More need to step up and support these competitions with funding, publicity and resources.” In thanking current sponsors, Anderson says their support demonstrates that they are all companies that “walk the talk” in expressing their commitment to the industry, its producers and the growers who spend money with them. For one sponsor, being not-for-profit doesn’t mean it can’t make a difference. AGMARDT, which has a three-year commitment to Young Horticulturalist, also supports the NZ Young Farmers contest and general manager Malcolm Nitschke says it is because horticulture has a tremendous future ahead…provided, of course, that New Zealand stays at the cutting edge of innovation and technology. “The kiwifruit industry’s current success is an excellent example of one that endured and adapted to the challenges and downturn caused by the PSA bacteria,” he says. “New Zealand demonstrated a cutting-edge response in the way we responded, and managed our way through the issues and risks that confronted us by using innovation and collaboration.” His company has supported Young Horticulturist for more than ten years because its mission is to foster the development of innovation and capability in the agricultural sectors, with a particular focus on building future leaders. “Maintaining the strength of the sector requires leadership and young people with the right skills,” Nitschke says. “The Young Horticulturist competition showcases some of the best young people in the sectors and exposes them to wider industry opportunities, and the competition is characterised by the fact that it is very much FEATURE STORY
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