Collaboration vital for primary sector success

Press Release

14 April 2016

Collaboration vital for primary sector success

Key leaders from industry and education gathered last night (13 April) to celebrate the ongoing successful partnership between Lincoln and Massey universities. Agri One is the 50/50 joint venture company owned by Lincoln and Massey. Executive education courses, research and scholarship opportunities are all part of the collaborative work that Agri One does.

Last nights’ function was to celebrate 10 years of successful governance by the Massey Lincoln Agricultural Industry Trust (MLAIT) which was set up in 2006 to ensure oversight of the Partnership for Excellence funding that was given to the two universities in order to achieve collaborative initiatives.

Tony Hall, Chair of the MLAIT Trust described a range of initiatives that had been achieved over the past 10 years. These included setting up the Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management in conjunction with DairyNZ, the establishment of Agri One Ltd, sponsorship of a large range of collaborative research projects between the two universities, primary sector summits, as well as other industry development initiatives such as the collaborative careers promotion programme in schools.

Pat Walsh, Chair of the Agri One Board said ‘I wish to thank the MLAIT trustees and the staff of both universities for their foresight and persistence in getting this important collaboration going. It hasn’t always been easy, but as time progresses the industry will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this important work’.

Jo Goodhew, Associate Minister for Primary Industries noted that, had the two universities chosen not to collaborate, NZ would be the poorer for it. She felt that there was clearly a sound basis for what is going to carry forward with Agri One.

As Agri One looks to the future, there are significant opportunities to continue to build and work upon the collaborative research and education projects already in place and develop new initiatives with both Lincoln and Massey.

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