Taupo’s Hot Lime Labs, Otago’s Forest Lodge Orchard and a partnership between AgResearch and Waikato Regional Council have all received funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund.
Hot Lime Labs is receiving $707,360 over two years towards its $1.76 million project that converts crop and wood waste from glasshouses into char. The char is then able to clean up substances, such as nitrates, and buried in the soil to trap carbon. Technology from the project also converts waste biomass into clean carbon dioxide.
Forest Lodge Orchard in Otago is receiving $37,198 to fast-track the development and testing of the world’s first electric foliage sprayer. The prototype was developed with TRS Wholesale Ltd in Blenheim and is trialled on New Zealand’s only electric tractor at the farm. The electric sprayer is expected to save up to 80 percent on power.
AgResearch and Waikato Regional Council are receiving $270,000 over three years for the $405,000 project that looks at the on-farm impacts of the Alligator weed. The weed is on the global biosecurity hitlist of ‘most noxious weeds.’
