In seeking solutions to better utilise marginal hill country land and stop erosion, the HBRC have teamed up with Comvita, Massey University and others as part of an industry/government funded PGP programme – High Performance Manuka Plantations – led by Mānuka Research Partnership (NZ) Ltd (MRPL). The programme aims to move mānuka honey from wild harvest to the “science based farming of medical grade manuka plantations”.
The HBRC is trialing a mānuka plantation, with Comvita providing the genetic material and Massey University undertaking scientific testing to present a science based case for the conversion of marginal lands from livestock to mānuka. With significant international demand for medical grade mānuka honey, the project could provide an environmental and economic winner for all involved.
The Hawkes Bay Regional Council has significant issues around their steep hill country – mainly erosion. The erosion is being exacerbated by extreme weather events such as the 2011 floods. They were looking to tree crops to increase value and production of marginal land while dealing with erosion. While looking for other solutions the HBRC was approached by Comvita to take part in mānuka growing trials. From here they entered into a partnership through the Primary Growth Partnership, called the High Performance Manuka Plantations programme, that entails growing mānuka on marginal land. Under this programme, HBRC has a 140ha trial plantation of mānuka trees at Tūtira Regional Park.
HRBC’s Land Services Manager, Campbell Leckie is quick to add that this is just one tool in the toolkit to drive better economic and environmental outcomes. “If we can get better economic and environmental returns for 150,000ha of erosion prone, steep farmland, then every-one’s on a winner”.
Campbell gives an excellent example of weather impacts – the 2011 flood had a $39 million bill for stock, infrastructure and property. This bill did not include damage to the ecosystem, nutrient filtration and carbon accumulation. After 50 years, the damaged land is still only expected to have returned to 8% of full productivity.
The Primary Growth Partnership is a central government initiative set up by MPI to boost productivity, value and profitability in the primary sector, deliver long-term economic growth and sustainability across primary industries, from producer to consumer, and encourage more private investment in research and development in New Zealand.
Together, MPI and industry have committed around $724 million into 20 innovation programmes, involving more than 50 companies.
The High Performance Manuka Plantations PGP programme aims to double land planted in mānuka and the mānuka honey harvest by 2028. They’re also aiming to double the harvest of high grade medical grade mānuka honey.
The High Performance Manuka Plantations Programme is a partnership driven by a range of partners including Comvita, HBRC, LandCorp, Nukuhau Carbon, Don and Conchita Tweeddale and Arborex Industries. The programme has a 1.4 million dollar taxpayer investment and 1.5 million of industry funding. It is planned as 7.5 years in length and started in March 2011. It estimates the potential net economic benefits to NZ to be $1.125 billion per year by 2028.
Comvita contribute genetic material for the mānuka trees. Comvita and Massey University are providing ‘the science’.
For Comvita, outcomes are about assuring a robust supply of high quality medical grade mānuka honey from across NZ. At present mānuka honey supply and yields are unpredictable, hence the desire to move from wild harvest to the “science based farming of mānuka plantations”.
In a world seeking healthier natural remedies and alternatives to our failing antibiotic treatments, mānuka honey and value added products are proving a market winner.
Medical grade honey is honey that has been processed and approved for usage in the treatment of certain topical applications. The antibacterial activity observed when mānuka honey is applied topically is attributed to the compound methylglyoxal. Methylglyoxal is formed from the conversion of dihydroxyacetone (DHA), which occurs in the nectar of manuka flowers, during the production of honey in the hive. The higher the levels of DHA in the mānuka nectar, then the higher the potential medical grade and potentially the more valuable the honey. The higher the levels of DHA in the mānuka nectar, then the higher the medical grade/UMF factor is, and the more valuable the honey for medical applications.
Medical grade honey is in huge demand. Comvita have utilised the science to create a number of medical applications from wound creams and anti-bacterial gels to hospital grade honey impregnated bandaging.
The 140ha trial is about identifying the cultivars that will provide the highest yield of medical grade honey, that are in turn best suited to the local climate and soil.
It’s about being able to give landowners evidence based statistics on which they can make decisions. People planting mānuka to harvest the honey is not new, however in these cases often the trees, whether eco-sourced or from local nurseries, do not guarantee a high quality of medical honey.
Of note is that mānuka has traditionally thrived in the area but was cleared for pasture. Guthrie Smith notes in his book Tūtira – Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station, that mānuka was a primary species in natural reversion after bush burn-offs in the late1880’s.
“By 1887, therefore – that is, five years after the original burn – the hanger had again become a somber slope of brown green … the multiplication of a shrub or small tree mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium). This plant is variable in habit and size, but in light lands rapidly develops into a somewhat rigid much branched shrub.”
Comvita has supplied 4 different mānuka seedling varieties that are known to produce high UMF/medical grade honey.
The HBRC has planted the varieties and continues to maintain the crop, taking care of weed and pest control (goats LOVE Mānuka). Comvita contracted beekeeper Jonathon Roe is supplying the hives there at the trial plantation.
Massey University are monitoring and running regular testing on the trees and the honey to assess:
- Floral density
- Nectar testing – it has been identified that trees with nectar high in DHA will produce the highest quality medical grade honey. (During testing a flower is picked and nectar pipetted from it).
- Flowering period – the timing of flowering is important, they work to achieve ‘staggered flowering’ where the tree flowers over weeks – in order to assure a good honey yield
- Bee ‘attractiveness’
- Disease resistance
- Hardiness
- Honey testing – to assess suitability for medical applications
- Weather
At this stage the trial has been going for 4 years, they expect it will be after 6 years in 2017 that they’ll get a strong indication of the suitability for medical applications.
Massey University who are also involved in other trial plantations across the North Island have been involved for 5 years with MRPL and have been testing 15 different varieties of varying UMF intensity. So far the research programme has only put through the best from the Comvita selection and breeding programme and no other NZ supplier of mānuka germplasm has run plants through this intensive programming of matching plant to place.
The key aim is to work out how best to match plants to places. MFNZ will soon have the consultancy services and supply lines to help landowners establish optimal plantations – this will be via Mānuka Foundation NZ who people will be able to interface with.
Massey University Prof. Archer says plantation mānuka is looking very promising as they are not cheap to establish and you have to keep up with the blanking, weeds and the pests for the first 6 or 7 years. It is the same as any orchard crop in that, for best return:
- You need to put exactly the right variety in the right spot
- You need exactly the right mix of varieties in a plantation
- One particular variety which is good in one location might not thrive:
- In the wet or the dry or the wind
- If it is frosty in winter
- In salt winds
- On a south facing slope
- At the wrong band of altitudes
- Where there are goats around
- Where there are wild varieties more attractive to bees
- Where there is scale insect
- Where there is not any mycorrhizal fungus in the ground
- You must plant the right spots at the right density (ie stems per hectare)
Preliminary results at Tūtira are promising. Mānuka can be hard to establish but has grown well there. The planting also has a remarkable 85% survival rate during the 2012 drought.
Early testing shows that the trees are starting to generate a significantly pure/high grade mānuka honey. Further, the plantings are reducing sediment runoff into the lake and they’re adding value to the local biodiversity.
HBRC ran a workshop in May 2015. The workshop featured the late scientist Prof Peter Molan, experts from Comvita, LCR and Massey University etc. While results are some years off, the workshop was about acknowledging that there is a market already and people are planting out Mānuka now. It was also about “base scene setting”. The workshop was well attended and generated a lot of interest. It ended with a visit to the Tūtira trial plantation.
In terms of landowners utilising the end results, at this stage there are 2 possible models being touted:
- Where the landowner has the capital to get the manuka trees in the ground, they’ll get the full profits of the honey harvest. They can either run their own hives or they can contract a beekeeper. In the case of contracting a beekeeper, the beekeeper gets 70% and Farmer 30% but by the time beekeeper has covered overheads this works out to a 50/50 split.
- Linking investors with farmers to plant out the manuka trees. There are such options where the government’s ‘AFForestation Grants Scheme’ has a grant that would put up $1300ha for eroded landscape plantings. Ultimately this would be a ‘share and/or lease fee.
Campbell did caution that with a few years left to run in the trialing, these models are yet to be set in concrete. At present the High Performance Manuka Plantations programme is working on a business plan and commercialization strategy.
(Northern North Island estimates suggest that at full maturity a farmer on 30% of the honey yield would get $200-$380ha – with present Sheep+Beef NZ estimating a return of $160ha for class 3 hard hill country).
Establishment costs are $2500 – $3000 a hectare. The landowner will be eligible for carbon credits at $6 a tonne but will only be eligible for this if they don’t use the Afforestation Grants Scheme. If they use that scheme the government gets the first 10 years carbon credits or the “safe Carbon”.