Diverse solutions for efficient land, water and nutrient use is the focus of this year’s Farmed Landscapes Research Centre workshop.
The 35th annual workshop, it will offer an online experience for attendees after the success of last year’s online workshop.
The workshop is being held across three days, from 8-10 February, with the option of attending in person at Massey’s Manawatū campus, or virtually via Zoom.
FLRC Director Professor Chris Anderson says the workshop will be looking at the challenges to primary production in New Zealand and how the best science in the world, coming out of New Zealand, can look at solutions to these challenges.
“The workshop is really a forum. We set a very general theme, then people submit what they want to talk about. We’ve got a full three-day programme and have people coming from across the country. We’re seeing an increased uptake of people who are going to join us online, but we’ve still got a large group joining us in-person in Palmerston North.”
The event’s three-day programme comprises a number of keynote speakers, including international speakers from Denmark and Australia. Professor Anderson says it’s always beneficial to have international speakers join the workshop as they bring an international perspective to discussions.
Typically, the workshop attracts consultants, Crown Research Institutes, academics and Government, with around 200 on-campus attendees as well as a large number online.
“Partners like the Ministry for Primary Industries will talk about latest initiatives around how we’re going to respond to these challenges,” Professor Anderson says.
“It becomes a forum for discussion. What we often see in these workshops is that alongside the set programme there’s many meetings that happen on the sideline, and that’s where a lot of business actually gets done for the primary production sector.”
He adds that the positive response to last year’s online delivery led the organising team to engage the expertise of Streamliner Productions again this year, to offer a high-class online experience for those who aren’t able to attend in person, or prefer to attend virtually.
“The fact that we’re still getting these numbers attending shows us that this is a fixed part of the calendar each year, and people recognise this as a forum for discussing and debating the challenges and the solutions.”
Find out more about the workshop here.
Source: Massey University
