Rural Services Academy Programme brings innovation to industry

In 2006 PGG Wrightson (PGW) established its training Academy offering employees the opportunity to grow their knowledge and expertise. Since then, more than 270 people have completed the programme, celebrated with a graduation and awards ceremony each year.

Innovations from students in recent years include an online tool to help farmers market and sell livestock during Covid-19 lockdowns, a “fertigation”, or fertiliser and irrigation, system to improve production for fruit growers, frost recovery programmes and feed and pasture analysis comparisons.

The Academy programme is a partnership between PGG Wrightson and the Primary ITO.

Each year over 20 employees from around the country are selected to join the 12-month Academy programme to work towards achieving a New Zealand Certificate in Rural Servicing (Level 4), an NZQA recognized certificate offered through the Primary ITO.

Students are exposed to a broad range of mahi across both the agriculture and horticulture industries, visiting processing facilities, suppliers, and growing and farming operations. Throughout the programme they received mentoring and work on a project for assessment and accreditation.

“The programme and formal Primary ITO qualification is designed to expand our employee’s knowledge base and grow their expertise and skills within our business and also within the industry,” says CEO, Stephen Guerin.

“It also helps develop them as a person in terms of exposing them to other areas and getting them out of their comfort zone.”

The programme has sparked graduates to specialise in new or particular areas, move to new roles, and gain promotions.

“A lot of people have gone on to bigger and brighter things both at PGW and in the wider industry. As a responsible employer we know we have a role to grow our future leaders in the industry and we are really proud of their achievements,” says Stephen Guerin.

Improving Nutrient Supply to Soil Grown Blueberries

Hannah Greaves started at PGW as a Customer Service Representative in 2018 then moved on to become a Trainee Technical Horticultural Field Representative for Fruitfed Supplies, but was unsure of her exact career path in the company when she joined the programme in 2019.

The programme introduced Hannah to learning a wider range of crops and resulted in the development of a customised fertigation and nutrient programme for her Blueberry grower that allows them to improve their yields.

“The Academy programme has been a highlight of my career. It was awesome being able to visit farmers and growers around New Zealand and hear about the regions and challenges within different industries and learn more about the wider rural sector.”

Hannah says doing the programme gave her a strong foundation for her career path. “I gained more industry knowledge and learnt a lot more about our company and how many opportunities there are.”

It also prepared her for her current role as Technical Horticultural Representative in the Hawkes Bay, where she advises and supports fruit growers.

“The project gave me an awesome idea of what being a rep is like. Now every day in my role I am talking to my growers and working with them to problem solve and help make their crops more profitable.”

Her project developed when she was partnered with another field representative servicing an apple grower. “I saw an opportunity to help in the blueberry part of their business.”

“After sitting down and discussing all facets of the business I saw an opportunity to increase production in the field-grown blocks as the yield was significantly lower than their hydroponic berries.”

This led to the team developing a “fertigation” programme for the soil grown blocks. Fertigation is the application of liquid fertiliser through an irrigation system. It allows growers to manage nutrient and water to maximise yield and the quality of the berries.

The final part of the project was running a cost analysis of potential increase of yield and profitability on the soil growing blocks. The analysis showed that fertigation had been very successful, and the growers are delighted with the improvements.

Hannah says the Academy programme allowed her to develop her skills and learn how she could add value as a field rep.

And Hannah takes great satisfaction from her successful project, born out of her Academy programme studies. “Now that I am a fully-fledged rep, I get to visit this customer regularly and see the progress.”

If you want to learn more about the rural services programme contact [email protected]