KEY POINTS:
The primary sector will get the biggest cash injection of any sector in this year's record breaking funding round from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
The foundation is investing $785 million compared with $628 million last year.
The funding is allocated to projects that run over a number years.
Foundation chief executive Murray Bain said the primary sector was the biggest investment area with about $38 million being spent in the first year.
"This reflects the importance of the sector to New Zealand's economy and our need to remain innovative and globally competitive," Bain said. "It is essential that we continue to update and improve our products and the way we produce them."
The foundation - which invested more than $530 million a year on behalf of the government - had $121 million available from maturing contracts and nearly $20 million of new funding from this year's Budget.
Crop and Food Research was given $7.5 million over five years for a project aimed at reducing the environmental impact of intensive farming.
The project would develop cultivars with high-performance root systems for pastures and crops.
Conventional breeding and molecular technologies would be used to develop improvements including water uptake, nutrient use and pest control.
Crop and Food estimated that $149 million a year could be added to the agriculture sector through reduced input costs, including irrigation, fertiliser and pesticides.
The growth in agriculture had depended on intensification underpinned by crop genetics and the selection of performance traits under high water and nutrient inputs, Bain said. "However, the sustainability of this growth and access to overseas markets is at risk as water availability becomes limiting, soil quality declines, nutrient input costs become prohibitive and nutrient losses ... and gaseous emissions become more highly regulated and a focus of consumer concern," he said.
Crop and Food chief executive Mark Ward said part of the investment would support a national germplasm collection containing material for developing new crops with new root systems.
"New Zealand's food exports depend on access to quality crops, produced sustainably, and so this work underpins New Zealand's ability to continue to increase its exports of quality foods," Ward said.
HortResearch got $4 million for a five-year research project aimed at developing an apricot to take advantage of a six-week gap in the European and Australian markets during March and April.
The foundation said exports of apricots currently worth $9 million could be increased to $24 million by 2018.
Current cultivars did not mature late enough or store for long enough to provide the quality required.
HortResearch summer fruit breeding programme manager Mike Malone said there was a huge opportunity to leverage the high global regard for New Zealand summer fruit by adding new and improved cultivars. "This programme will deliver the world's best late season apricot, the perfect compliment to other stunning summer fruit already being produced in New Zealand," Malone said.
Bain said it was particularly pleasing to see more collaboration among the bids.
A contestable bidding process accounted for 70 per cent of investments, while the government's Stable Funding Environment Initiative was in its second year, including negotiated contracts enabling longer-term planning.
"It is an unfortunate fact of a contestable process that some good bids will miss out, but we are confident that we have a robust process that has seen us target the money to the research most likely to benefit New Zealand," Bain said.
