An Otago farming leader says farmers in the south will be the big losers if AgResearch scales back its research site at Invermay - and they lose the local expertise it provides.
The crown research institute is proposing to shift 85 staff from Invermay, near Dunedin, as part of its plan to expand its campuses at Lincoln and Palmerston North.
At the national board level, Federated Farmers officially supports the strategic shift - saying it believes AgResearch could create the Silicon Valley of food.
But its Otago president, Stephen Korteweg, believes AgResearch's decision to scale down its Invermay operation will hurt local farmers.
He said that trying to replicate some of the research that's being done from further afield to apply to what happens in the southern region would be almost impossible.
Mr Korteweg said there are a lot of expectations being put on the rural sector with the desire for an export led economic recovery.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull will lead a delegation of southern representatives to Wellington in the next week or so to meet AgResearch's shareholding ministers to put forward an alternative plan to reducing its Invermay operation.
