Executive summary
Regenerative agriculture (Regen Ag) is a holistic farming approach that aims to improve the health of the environment, not just sustain it. It focuses on regenerating soil health and biodiversity, which can lead to benefits such as improved water quality, carbon sequestration, and climate change mitigation. This approach uses a variety of practices, such as cover cropping, no-till farming, and biochar applications, and is often seen as working “with the environment, not against it”.
Regen Ag has not yet become a mainstream practice due to a rather ‘leaky’ definition and often perceived as a ‘feel good’ factor and ‘greenwashing’. However, the biggest concern is the lack of scientific data to support its perceived benefits, both globally and within New Zealand.
New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry is youthful in comparison to other primary industries – the horticulture sector contributed $8.5b in 2025 to the export revenue and nearly half of this came from kiwifruit exports indicating that growing kiwifruit can be a profitable business.
To date, government and the kiwifruit industry has invested in investigating the benefits of Regen Ag, however, there is almost no publicity of the results by these entities and no extension activities in promoting these practices. Despite the hindrances due to knowledge gaps, Regen Ag in the kiwifruit industry has gained significant attention as a more sustainable option compared to conventional farming.
A greater proportion of growers, especially the younger generation, are aiming to become environmentally resilient while remaining profitable. Adoption of Regen Ag practices in kiwifruit, has percolated from other horticultural sectors such as viticulture, and vegetable cropping, due to cross-sector collaborations in the recent times.
Regen Ag in the kiwifruit industry is far from becoming a mainstream practice; the aims of this Kellogg report was to identify which regenerative practices are currently practical and being utilised in kiwifruit orchards. Using a survey approach and thematic analysis of questionnaire responses from industry stakeholders, the report investigates what are the hindrances to the adoption of Regen Ag practices within the kiwifruit industry.
Analysis of the questionnaire responses revealed that,
- Lack of scientific data is one of the biggest hindrances to the adoption of Regen Ag practices. This is in accordance with the diffusion of innovation model, where this report found the biggest proportion of early adopters of Regen Ag practices in kiwifruit, followed by innovators, but because of the knowledge gaps, the adoption falls off, causing a cascading effect on the remaining population.
- Lack of support in promoting the science and extension of Regen Ag from the government and Zespri – is one of the hindrances to Regen Ag adoption.
- The current ‘kiwifruit growing model’ is highly profitable and growers ask, ‘why change if not broken’. There are no commercial incentives for regeneratively-grown, nutrient-dense kiwifruit. Some primary industries have started claiming premiums for regeneratively grown produce, but there does not seem to be any movement in the kiwifruit space.
- There is currently (and in the near future) no mention of a separate ‘regeneratively produced’ marketing category of kiwifruit.
- Initial monetary inputs can be higher for cover crop seeds, and soil amendments such as biochar and compost that are proven to improve soil health and organic matter, 3 across other horticultural sectors. The benefits need to be tested and proved for the wider adoption of these practices (which may bring these initial costs down due to better supply).
- Improving soil health, is one of the pillars of Regen Ag – using cover crops and biochar is a proven concept, but its potential effect on improving kiwifruit quality and marketability has not yet been proven widely. However, improving soil health should be the most obvious and easy-to-achieve option to improve resilience to environmental anomalies, which again, is a parameter that is difficult to quantify.
It is concluded that the industry needs to collectively perform science and extension activities to prove the perceived benefits of Regen Ag and incentivise these practices for a sustainable future of the kiwifruit industry.
The report highlights the following recommendations.
- Adopting a science-based, data-driven approach: CRIs, Zespri and key industry experts need to form a committee who can be responsible for scientifically demonstrating the benefits of Regen Ag by conducting experiments, run cost-benefit analyses, thereby demonstrating the economic feasibility of Regen Ag in kiwifruit, and this should be done alongside risk assessments. These committee experts would serve as the key advocates and extension specialists to bring science to growers in the most simplified manner.
- Collaboration and communication: A pan sector collaboration and pooled funding stream across various horticultural sectors is critically recommended that will serve as the platform for sharing key learnings and testing the practicality of the successful outcomes.
- Regulation, certification and potential for incentives: A certification system for regeneratively-grown kiwifruit must be established, and in order to do so, New Zealand, as a collective, is required to agree upon a ‘New Zealand version’ of Regen Ag and regulate the practices around it. Kiwifruit growers can then be incentivised for becoming regenerative, and this can drive the kiwifruit industry to become sustainable to remain competitive and profitable in the future.
Pranoy Pal
