Rural innovation sets the scene for New Zealand's future
Photo:
Fieldays
Jeffery To was twiddling his thumbs at home during Covid lockdown when he came up with the idea of a robot that could scour our waterways and collect pollution data.
"My wife was getting sick of me being at home all the time," says the Waikato engineer. "After watching YouTube I built an autonomous boat that mapped the local lake with the target or vision of cleaning the lake forever."
In true number eight wire fashion, he built the miniature boat with three PVC pipes and a metal tray, but the technology on board the vessel was groundbreaking and expensive.
He posted his mapping of the lake on social media and caught the attention of Waikato Regional Council.
Jeffery To showing The Detail's Sharon Brettkelly the MĀKI boat V2 - Hydrohub, a boat that maps and monitors water quality.
Photo:
Davina Zimmer
"They asked me if I would be interested in mapping other lakes. I said certainly. Since then I've learned a lot about water quality in New Zealand, what can we do, what should we do, what is possible."
To's engineering/technology company, Māki, was one of dozens of exhibitors in the innovation hall at Fieldays last week and a finalist in the Prototype Award.
He tells The Detail the Māki boat is also capable of mapping parts of harbours and the sea around islands that humans cannot reach by car or boat. He has deliberately kept the materials cheap so that councils can afford them, and put the money into the technology that maps and collects data.
"With the engineer background, we first identify how big the problem is. With the boat, we know how bad the problems are. The next thing is finding solutions that can do things in a sustainable way to help with the problem, how do we slow it down," To says.
"But in order to reverse it I think there's a lot more work and I hope that with technology and innovation we can help a little bit."
A few booths away in the innovation hall, Chris Harper explains how the small mats sitting on his display table were concocted in his kitchen from kiwifruit waste.
Chris Harper, operations manager of Kiwi Leather Innovations.
Photo:
Davina Zimmer
On the wall behind him are photos of luxury fashion boots and handbags. They are the vision of KiwiLeather Innovations, run by Harper and his partner Shelley Houston.
After hours of experiments in their kitchen, the vegan leather is now in development at Scion, the crown research institute in Rotorua.
Harper says the market viable product should be ready by November, but the couple is already in talks with major global brands including Adidas, BMW and Victoria Beckham.
He says the next step is to get funding to set up a pilot project.
"We are going to have to find some space in the Tauranga region where we can set up our first presses to get the moisture out of the kiwifruit, our first kilns to dry the kiwifruit to make the powder and our first compounding area where we can actually make our secret sauce."
Harper says they expect to produce up to 10,000 square metres of KiwiLeather.
Another iconic New Zealand product, wool, is a special focus at this agriculture expo. After years in the doldrums, wool is starting to make a comeback, according to Angus Hansen, founder and operations manager of Wisewool.
"It has definitely turned a corner," says Hansen, sitting on an all-wool and wood couch in the It's Wool booth, surrounded by other products made from the fibre by several companies.
A wool couch decorated with woollen blankets, pillows and throws was the centre piece of the Wisewool booth.
Photo:
Davina Zimmer
"We [Wisewool] source wool from about 300 farms in the Tairāwhiti region, which is around three million kilos. We use a portion of that for Wisewool which is value added and we sell our products mainly into bedding and furniture - which we're sitting on now - globally."
Hansen says the company is paying its farmer suppliers more than the market rate.
"Farmers are making money off their wool again. So, yeah, wool has been in a tough spot for actually quite a long time and it finally feels like [with] the groundswell of us making changes [and] adding value, farmers are finally making money off their wool again."
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail
here
.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on
or following us on
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
'Vital' changes made to emergency services technology
St John welcomed the new emergency services resource. Photo: St John Hato Hone St John believes a new emergency services technology to help locate people faster will mean the difference between life and death. The new technology, the Device Location Information (DLI) service, can be used by emergency services to locate the mobile phone of a person who has not called 111 themselves but there are grave fears for their health or safety. The DLI capability was announced on Friday by Minister of Police Mark Mitchell. Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of Hato Hone St John, said they welcomed the new emergency services resource. "This is a vital tool that will help emergency services respond faster when every second counts. The ability to quickly locate a person whose life or health is at serious risk but unable to call for help can mean the difference between life and death," Bradley said. "Crucially, this new capability highlights the value of collaboration between emergency service agencies. By working together and leveraging shared technology, we can deliver a faster, more accurate medical response to people when they need it, wherever they may be." The DLI service is part of a broader programme of work being led by Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) to modernise the critical communications infrastructure and services used by the emergency services. NGCC is also delivering the Public Safety Network cellular services and a new Land Mobile Radio network for Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, Wellington Free Ambulance, and Hato Hone St John. Bradley said the service will benefit time-critical situations such as where a call for help is cut short before location details can be shared. "When a call drops, or when a person can't speak but is in clear need of help, this technology ensures we're not wasting valuable time trying to manually determine where they might be. It allows us to respond faster when a person's life or health is at serious risk," he said. Mitchell echoed the words of Hato Hone St John. "When every second counts, having access to real time digital technology is a game changer for our emergency services, and for public safety," Mitchell said. He said it will be a very useful tool for search and rescue operations, for example when someone is reported missing in the bush. "Provided they're carrying a mobile device that's switched on and connected to a cellular network, emergency services can use the DLI service to get immediate access to information about the area they are in and send help," he said. "Our emergency services do a great job, handling over two million calls for help each year. This new capability will help them find people more quickly when speed is of the essence." The Government said they've ensured this tool is in line with the Telecommunications Information Privacy Code, with processes in place to ensure this new tool is used appropriately and transparently. They said this includes a two-step process to authorise use of the DLI service and transparently reporting on when and why it has been used. Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello said the technology's capability is an improvement on the current process which requires manual requests to be made to mobile network operators and relies on them having people on call 24/7 to assist. "This service can also help if a call is transferred to an emergency service from another operator. For example, if someone on the phone to Healthline falls unconscious and the call drops, then the Device Location Information service can locate the mobile device they were calling from and send this information to ambulance teams," Costello said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
Concern as light pollution encourages birds to sing for longer, study finds
Light pollution could be attracting and disorientating species like Cook's petrel. Photo: Supplied / DOC Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown. The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of birdsong, including from New Zealand's North Island. President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding. But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health. "It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles." She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels. But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds . Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's petrel or Hutton's shearwaters. This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings , and they may become injured or grounded in cities. She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction. This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night. It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas. "Most of the bird song was collected in North America and Europe," Cain said. "We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways." "Importantly, all this artificial light is not good for us either." People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
17 hours ago
- Scoop
Taradale High School Students Partner With Tech Company To Develop AI-Powered App Fighting Food Waste
Press Release – Taradale High School Young Enterprise The 'InstaMeal' app, conceived by the three-member Young Enterprise team led by students Tessa Mason, Greer Nesbit, and Sebastian Croft, represents a cutting-edge solution to a pressing environmental and economic challenge. A team of innovative students from Taradale High School has partnered with local tech company Incredible Software to develop a groundbreaking mobile application that tackles New Zealand's food waste crisis through the power of artificial intelligence. The 'InstaMeal' app, conceived by the three-member Young Enterprise team led by students Tessa Mason, Greer Nesbit, and Sebastian Croft, represents a cutting-edge solution to a pressing environmental and economic challenge. The application uses AI-powered image recognition to scan users' fridges and pantries, automatically identifying available ingredients and generating multiple recipe suggestions to minimise food wastage. How It Works Users simply take a photo of their fridge or pantry contents, and the app's advanced AI technology identifies all available ingredients. The system then generates multiple recipe options using only the ingredients on hand, helping families avoid unnecessary grocery purchases while reducing household food waste. The app also features manual input options, recipe saving functionality, and the ability to generate shopping lists for multi-meal planning. The 2023 Rabobank-KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey found New Zealand wastes $3.2 billion worth of food annually – enough to feed approximately 688,000 Kiwis for an entire year. 'The main goal is to reduce food wastage because obviously we know that there's a lot of that in New Zealand, and it will help to save money as well because we're in an expensive time,' said Tessa, project team leader from Taradale High School. 'It can help minimise grocery purchases that you don't really need.' Professional Development Partnership In a generous move, Incredible Software, a New Zealand-based AI development company, has committed to building the application pro bono. The partnership emerged when company owner Matt Browning recognised the project's potential impact during Young Enterprise mentoring. 'When these students came up with this idea, I immediately saw the potential for real environmental and social impact,' said Matt Browning, Co-CEO of Incredible Software. 'We've built similar AI-powered applications as internal tools for businesses, and this project represents exactly the kind of innovative thinking we want to support. These students are using AI for good – that's something everyone should get behind.' Addressing Real Challenges The timing of the InstaMeal app couldn't be more relevant. With rising grocery costs and growing environmental consciousness, New Zealand families are increasingly looking for practical solutions to reduce waste and save money. Recent data shows that over half of New Zealand's food waste consists of vegetables, while households throw away 29 million loaves of bread annually. Competition and Funding Goals Development of the InstaMeal app has been completed and early adopters are welcome to use the app. The students are also exploring sponsorship opportunities and monetisation strategies that maintain the app's accessibility and create sustainable funding. The competition finals are scheduled for late October 2025. The project represents not only technological innovation but also demonstrates how young entrepreneurs can leverage partnerships with established businesses to create meaningful social impact. The partnership between Taradale High School and Incredible Software showcases the potential for educational institutions and tech companies to collaborate on solutions addressing real-world challenges while providing students with invaluable professional experience. About the Teams The Taradale High School Young Enterprise team consists of three dedicated students working to combine environmental consciousness with practical technology solutions. Incredible Software is a 10-person AI development company specialising in intelligent applications for businesses and organisations throughout New Zealand and around the world.
