Like it or not, NZ is in the business of biology, so we need to understand what it will take to be a success in this century of biology reports The NZ Herald. There are many factors that will contribute, but I will focus on three. First, NZ is lucky enough to have world-class biological resources and a "Goldilocks" climate - not too hot, not too cold. That gives us a running start. We supply products the world needs, and for which demand is nothing like as price or wealth-sensitive as cars or oil. Painful as the fall in the international milk price has been for NZ in the last few months, milk has fallen from its peak proportionately much less than oil. New Zealand's net tangible asset backing is not hydrocarbon reserves like the oil industry or mortgages like the US finance industry, but rainfall. While its arrival can be unpredictable, fresh water is the human species' most important mineral. Second, we have a proud tradition, on the whole, of using our biological resources responsibly but innovatively. We have developed a base of talented biologists and agribusiness people. Of course, we need even more talented people and more science if we are to remain innovative, but we have done well to date. Third, we need to take a long-term view and invest in our future. In the business of biology, no matter how smart we are, there are natural limits on how quickly we can make things grow and how many seasons it takes to develop a new plant or animal. It is hard to make time go faster, so we have to think well ahead. Fortunately, NZ's biological sectors have been investing and working to develop agri-technologies that would deliver long-term returns for over a century now. Starting around 1905, work was under way at Ruakura and Wallaceville on the benefits of fertiliser use for plant growth. In 1935, the discovery that cobalt eradicated "bush sickness" opened up the volcanic plateau to farming. By the 1960s, electric fences were widely used and agri-technologies just kept growing from there. In the past 50 years or so, this has led to our agricultural productivity growth averaging over 2 % a year - faster than almost any other sector, and this rate of growth is rising over time.
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