Crop and Food and Tangata Whenua

Crop and Food is a Crown Research Institute whose mission is to “lead NZ innovation in food and food production”. They undertake research with iwi and Māori businesses within the framework known as Te Pūtahi, where the knowledge, resources and values of Māori meet the knowledge, resources and values of Crop and Food.

This approach has given rise to several research projects:

  • Working with Te Rūnanga o Turanganui in Gisborne to look at commercial gourmet uses of kaanga pirau (fermented corn).
  • Investigating early kūmara varieties with the Pu Hao Trust of Manukau and Tāhuri Whenua, the National Māori Vegetable Growers Collective. Seeds of these kūmara had been taken to Japan several decades ago before being returned to New Zealand by the Trust. (See also the media release 24 January 2006.)
  • Studying the factors that will consistently produce manuka honey high in the antibacterial Unique Manuka Factor, in partnership with Horouta Manuka Honey, a Tairāwhiti company.
  • Trialling the growing of commercial ginseng crops in pine forests belonging to the Maraeroa C Incorporation of Te Kuiti and Ngāti Whakaue of Rotorua.
  • The Best of Both Worlds vegetable growing programme with three iwi, Ngāti Porou on the East Coast, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Waipatu at Hastings and Ngā Uri o Manawatū-Rangitikei at Bulls.

Last updated 14 July 2009

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