Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Tamariki get farm training on customary land

Updated at 7:10 pm on 11 February 2013

A training centre set up to get more tangata whenua into farming has taken on its first students.

Eight people have so far signed up for lessons on a South Taranaki dairy farm owned by Te Rua o Te Moko.

It sits on blocks of customary land in Normanby - collectively controlled by 1100 owners.

The teaching project's a collaboration between the farm and Land Based Training - and students will leave with a Level 3 National Certificate in Agriculture.

A director with the company and a Maori land block owner, Doug Brooks, says it's a new life for some of the students.

He says some of them have been unemployed and drawing benefits up to now - and they're keen to out of the doldrums and into work.

Mr Brooks says the training will give the students the skills to run Maori-owned farms.

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