Spy: Meet the farmer who wowed Ali Pugh

Ali Pugh and Tangaroa Walker are bringing sexy back to farming.

This morning Ali Pugh introduces new co-host Tangaroa Walker on The Agricultural Show on TVNZ 1 and OnDemand and we hear he is one to watch.

The programme is in place of the 168-year-old physical event that normally attracts more than 100,000 in Christchurch, but was cancelled last month for the second year in a row, due to Covid. Pugh is a big fan of Walker, who is a dairy farmer and online media personality who created an online learning hub for young people wanting to get into the industry.

"I loved working with Tangaroa," says Pugh. "I was already a big fan from his hilarious and yet informative social media posts, so I was so excited to work alongside him. He has so much energy and passion for farming, and his enthusiasm was infectious."

Walker jumped at the chance to help his mates at The Ag Show, saying the guys behind it were initially gutted when it was cancelled but are now excited as elements of the event have been captured in the TV special.

"It's been a huge amount of work pulling this together and the show is jam-packed." Walker tells Spy.

"Working with Ali was an awesome insight into the life of a professional presenter ... I mean, I present to my social media followers and things. But this was the real deal with directors and producers. It was a lot, Ali is a pro!"

Walker's online learning hub, Farm 4 Life, gets about 1.2 million views each month and boasts 80 million video views since its inception. He was also a past winner of the NZ Ahuwhenua Young Māori Farmer of the Year trophy and says one of his missions is to "sex up" farming to make it a passion career for young people.

"I think in order for any industry to be inspiring and to inspire young people. It needs some kind of superhero. Someone has to step forward, now I'm joking about the sexy up part - or me being the man for the job, because I'm pretty fugly I reckon and I'm definitely not a superhero, but the bar is pretty low so I'm able to fill a gap I guess," he says.

Walker says the biggest threat to farming is public perception and how we navigate forward around regenerative agriculture.

"It's an awesome opportunity for our industry and New Zealand and the world but we need to create a clear pathway forward and get everyone on the journey. We need to commit to that for a sustainable future."

Despite working closely with Pugh, Walker's broadcasting hero is actually her TVNZ counterpart Pippa Wetzell, who he says has long inspired him.

He says if the opportunity arises to broadcast on TV he will take it, but that he is pretty happy with the platform he's created.

"Today there's lots of science and pretty high-level stuff being talked about - I'm interested in making that accessible to people, particularly young people."