About Agritec centre

THE INSPIRATION OF FIVE KEY ORGANISATIONS

“We must invest in developing our agricultural workforce as well as our research and engineering capability in the land-based industries. Agriculture is a key driver of our regional and national economy so it’s vital that we attract young people into the industry and that they become skilled in understanding and using agritechnologies.”
Mark Flowers, CEO of Wintec

The Agritec Centre is a partnership of five key organizations in the agricultural sector.
Wintec, AgResearch, Agriculture ITO, Waikato Innovation Park and the Coalition of 21st Century Secondary Schools collaborated to build this unique education facility.

These partners, along with other key industry organisations, sought to respond to industry concerns:

• Insufficient students entering science, engineering or technology degree programmes, with the risk that New Zealand may lose important research and engineering capability in the land-based industries
• Projected labour force growth of 25% required to 2025 (ref required)
• Need for farmers to learn about and become familiar with the latest agritechnologies  in order to drive continued industry growth

So when AgResearch invested $6.5 million into a high-performing, high-technology dairy conversion at Tokanui, this became the ideal platform from which to deliver modern high tech farming education.  AgResearch shares current data from its farm to inform the resources and teachings of the Centre.
Opened in March 2010, the Agritec Centre was funded through an establishment grant from the  Tertiary Education Commission, backed by investment from both Wintec and AgResearch into the purpose built learning centre.