Working towards a regenerative future for growing our food

Between 1991 and 2019, estimates of the amount of nitrogen applied to land in Aotearoa New Zealand increased 629% from 62,000 to 452,000 tonnes. Nitrogen leaching can negatively impact freshwater quality by promoting algal blooms and excessive plant growth, as well as result in eutrophication that can degrade water quality and impact mahinga kai (natural food resources) habitat and species.

Team LeaderBrand came into XLabs LIVE to find a solution for this challenge, asking how they might reduce environmental impact across 2500 ha of vegetable crops by minimising surplus/leachable nitrogen and regenerating living systems?

LeaderBrand is one of New Zealand’s largest producers of vegetables, and in particular leafy greens. The company supports 400 families through employment, and in many cases is moving into its second generation of land owners. LeaderBrand’s crop production teams are keen to keep finding ways to make environmental improvements, while continuing to produce high quality vegetables.

Throughout the week the team explored how the Circular by Design framework of Embedded Intelligence could be applied to reduce nitrogen leaching. They came up with the idea of a digital platform and monitoring method which identifies optimum volumes of nitrogen for crop yield and minimising leaching, as well as pioneering with the use of composts and biofertilisers (digestates and hydrolysates).

Also leveraging Networked Participation, the LeaderBrand team want to find other businesses and growers who are interested in finding a way to replace current nitrogen fertilisers with organically-derived local sources, in order to scale the solution and create a new norm for the industry. Committed to transparency, LeaderBrand places importance on sharing their progress publicly.

XLabs is made possible through partnership with Ministry for the Environment/Manatū mō te Taiao, Tātaki/Auckland Unlimited, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Toitū Envirocare, Kantar, Callaghan Innovation, Trees That Count, Greenhouse Capital New Zealand, and Circularity.