11 Jul 2013

AgResearch says it has role in new water accord

6:31 am on 11 July 2013

AgResearch says it's got a role to play in helping the dairy industry meet the targets it's set itself in its new water accord.

The accord was launched this week and aims to lessen the sector's impact on the environment - while allowing it to grow further and remain highly profitable.

Dairy NZ says in the last 10 years New Zealand's milk supply has increased by 47% - to 1.7 billion kilo of milk solids in 2012.

AgResearch chairman Sam Robinson said it and other Crown research institutes and scientific organisations have a big role to play in helping reduce nutrient losses from farms.

He said AgResearch is quite happy to be part of helping solve the problem of how to minimise the footprint while still enabling production to occur to ensure there is a decent standard of living in New Zealand.