Indian agribusinesses look to benefit from New Zealand innovations

New Zealand's largest annual agricultural showcase has attracted significant attention from visiting agri-tech leaders from India.

Ten representatives from India's agribusiness sector visited the country for a week as part of Asia New Zealand Foundation's NZ India Entrepreneurship Initiative.

These businesses ranged from sustainable beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, AI-driven crop monitoring, affordable farm mechanisation, climate-smart technologies, hydroponic farms and indoor vertical farms, as well as digital agriculture and scalable farm innovation.

The delegation attended Fieldays at Hamilton's Mystery Creek on Wednesday last week and was impressed by New Zealand's expertise in animal husbandry, precision farming, quality transparency, post-harvest management, climate-resilient agriculture and cold-chain logistics.

Swapnil Jadhav, founder of Map My Crop

Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom

Swapnil Jadhav, founder of Map My Crop, which uses satellite imaging and artificial intelligence to predict crop health and farm diseases, said Fieldays was one of the best agricultural trade shows he had attended.

"Without doubt and I have attended agri-tech shows in more than 25 countries. More so, the setting. Most of the shows I go to are usually based in urban areas, but here we are in rural New Zealand," Jadhav said.

"I am particularly impressed by the advancements New Zealand has made in the animal husbandry sector. Some sensors I have seen are doing amazing work, which we want to take to India and other countries we market our products into."

Jadhav said his company had signed a memorandum of understanding with an Auckland company and a few more deals were in the final stages.

"The recent signing of New Zealand-India FTA [free trade agreement) has enabled us to collaborate with New Zealand agri-tech and take their best practices to the world," he said.

Amrita Mukherjee is a product manager at Arogyam Medisoft Solution.

Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom

Collaboration was indeed the buzz word of the event.

Amrita Mukherjee, a product manager at Arogyam Medisoft Solution who comes from the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, said her agricultural traceability company wanted to enter the dairy sector and work on improving cow health.

"In both our countries - India and New Zealand - the dairy sector is a very prominent one," Mukherjee said.

"We are working on building solutions to detect mastitis at farm level, as well as track cow health through portable battery-operated devices for testing urine and blood samples.

"In addition, we are developing solutions to track fodder and silage quality.

"While we are still in the development phase, here at Fieldays, I saw some New Zealand companies have already developed a few prototypes. Our solutions can be integrated giving us a very good chance of international collaboration."

Vikas Mishra is business director at Evergreen Innovation Platform.

Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom

Vikas Mishra, business director at Evergreen Innovation Platform, was "astonished" at the level of automation and technological deployment in New Zealand dairy farms.

"We visited a 200-acre dairy farm with a cattle-head of 550. Astonishingly, it was managed by only three people. If it can happen here, why can't it be replicated back home?" Mishra asked.

His company scouts for impactful climate innovations the world over and adapt them to local Indian context.

"Innovations are one part of the deployment cycle," he said.

"How exactly are farmers adopting them is another matter."

Fieldays attracted near record crowds to Mystery Creek this year.

Photo: Supplied

Mishra said the delegation's visit to the Bioeconomy Science Institute was particularly fascinating.

"How meticulously they study the food system (and) the cropping pattern is something we can co-study. ... The innovations in New Zealand horticulture sector can benefit apple growers in (the city of) Simla and Kashmir, or even orange farmers in Maharashtra (state)," Mishra said.

"We can do direct deployment of the available innovations, of course, but can also look at co-development of such solutions in the India context."

Pulkit Mittal, vice president at Tractors and Farm Equipment, was appreciative of the precision farming solutions and auto steering systems on display at Fieldays.

"We deal mainly in tractors and to see the tech available here is amazing, including the variable rate sprayers, planters, broadcasters for granular fertilisers," Mittal said.

"These can be beneficial even for field crops in India such as wheat, rice and maize, where farmers can undertake precision farming and achieve better yields."

Pulkit Mittal is vice president at Tractors and Farm Equipment.

Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom

Another benefit will be to Indian food processors and exporters where there are requirements of traceability and compliance to food quality, according to Mittal.

"Calibration [of instruments] is also a big problem in India," Mittal said.

"The tech for this [solutions for traceability, compliance and calibration] is available in New Zealand, which can help Indian exporters access these markets," he added, emphasising the need for research collaboration between agribusinesses on both sides.

According to Asia New Zealand Foundation business director Tim McCready, the visit by the Indian delegation presents a timely opportunity for India and New Zealand to deepen agribusiness connections alongside the recent signing of the free trade agreement.

"Fieldays puts them in front of the right people in one place, while also showcasing New Zealand as a globally competitive player in agriculture," McCready said.

"The FTA ... is a fantastic opportunity, but ultimately it is people who make business happen."

Some of the award-winning innovations on display at Fieldays included an elert EQ device (a wearable technology designed to monitor equine health), Scanabull WeighApp, which uses 3D LiDAR and AI to deliver real-time cattle liveweights via phone scan, and Enivo's biodegradable plant pots made from forestry and primary industry waste.