Edmeades said he didn't think the AgResearch layoffs were related to the dairy downturn.
Edmeades said he didn't think the AgResearch layoffs were related to the dairy downturn.
The expected layoffs of about 90 science staff at AgResearch, the country's largest Crown research institute, is a "pretty fatal blow" to agricultural research, says Doug Edmeades, a Waikato soil scientist.
Edmeades, himself a former AgResearch scientist, said he was told by a staff member that 19 per cent of the CRI's researchers would be made redundant this Thursday because of a drop in funding.
Agribusiness professor at Waikato University Jacqueline Rowarth said she had originally been told 82 staff were being laid off but that number had shifted to between 80-100, or 20 per cent of the 500-or-so research staff.
AgResearch chief executive Tom Richardson was unavailable for comment and the body's public relations staff didn't return calls.
The move follows yesterday's announcement from Fonterra Cooperative Group that it was making a further 227 staff redundant globally, taking job losses from its business review began in December to 750.
Edmeades said he didn't think the AgResearch layoffs were related to the dairy downturn.
Edmeades said he didn't think the AgResearch layoffs were related to the dairy downturn, rather they follow a general downward trend in the amount of government funding on agricultural research.
"What's happening is crazy when the biggest industry in New Zealand is agriculture," he said. "This has been coming for some time and they put if off and put if off while awaiting the outcome of some funding proposals. Obviously the answer they got was no." Rowarth said science was continuing to struggle in New Zealand because of reduced government funding, the competitive nature of the funding allocation model and the erosion of independence it had created.
"The result is a science system under considerable stress, increasing public mistrust of results and a decrease in engagement in science subjects at school," she said in a recently published article.
"In New Zealand, both current and future capability is evaporating. For agriculture, which continues to form the basis of the export economy, the implications are dire."
AgResearch's half-year report flagged that the CRI was unlikely to hit budgeted full-year revenue, primarily because of an unforeseen decrease in revenues from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Primary Growth Partnership-related contracts.
The group posted $63.7 million of revenue for the six months ended December 2014, down $5.2 million on the same period the previous year and below budgeted revenue of $69.9 million. It had a net deficit of $5.9 million, $1.1 million more than at the same time last year.
Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said he understood AgResearch would be making an announcement later this week and it would therefore be premature of him to comment in any detail.
"AgResearch needs to be given the room to have discussions with its staff and make any appropriate changes it needs to make," he said.
"Every science organisation has to change its staffing structure from time to time to meet the needs of their sector and to ensure that it is focusing on the research that the sector values."
While Crown Research Institutes were managed through a combination of funding streams, Mr Joyce said there had been no change to the Government's $39 million-per-annum core funding of AgResearch.
AgResearch also competed for funding as part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Ministry for Primary Industries contestable funding process, and received $11 million in funding in the recent 2015 MBIE Science Investment Round, Mr Joyce said.
"The Government gives a lot of support to the science sector - additional funding announced in Budget 2015 will bring the Government's total investment in science to more than $1.5 billion in 2015/16."
Pure science
• Country's largest Crown research institute. • Aims to enhance the value, productivity, and profitability in the pastoral, agri-food and agri-technology sector. • Lay-offs expected of about 90 science staff. • $63.7 million of revenue for the six months ended December 2014, below budget of $69.9 million.
