Dear Don Brash,

The recent news that $19.5 million has been awarded to a new programme of innovation seeking to transform traditional fertiliser use and provide more affordable solutions is just a waste of money, especially when one of the countries biggest environmental polluters is leading the programme.

The Govt has a fund for innovative agriculture of which $250 million has been absorbed with no new innovation and now $19.5 million going to Ballance – result will again be no new innovation.

We are an innovative self-funded, BioGro certifed natural fertiliser company, producing products that are bringing health, vitality and fertility back into our soils.

We have been doing this for the past 18 years, seeing improvements in soil health, topsoil depth, soil carbon content, animal health, plant health, fertility rates and sustainability. The life and mineral we are bringing to the soil is holding its ground, improving water retention, soil draining capacity and water quality.

Production is not affected, however as the topsoil depth increases so will production and quality of product.

We are not asking for any assistance, we are paying for the scientific reports on our fertiliser’s performance, we are doing this one farm at a time.  We love what we’re doing and the farmers are reporting that frogs are back on their farms – a sure sign that the environment is healthy. All this is achieved for the price of our fertiliser with no cost to the taxpayer or ratepayer.

Our agricultural science has been non-existent since the mid 1980’s, when it was taken over by the chemical fertiliser industry and is constrained today through the partnerships of Ballance with Massey and Ravensdown with Lincoln.

So, with Ballance leading the programme and in control of the soil science we see little “change” out of the $19.5 million.

We are keen supporters of Act, trusting that they can bring some sanity and commonsense back to our society and get rid of this corrupt bureaucratic system.

 

Sincerely

 

John K Morris

CEO

Agrissentials NZ Ltd