Daniel Kenna – Impact Orchard Network Q&A

Orchard Profile • Gold3 (17ha)

Q: Your parents Phillipa Wright and Stephen Kenna have a long history of grower-led inquisitiveness and trials. Did this family involvement help convince you to join ION?
A: Yes it did. It felt like the next natural step for all of our scientific and horticultural journey to take. I really think there’s a lot of good in what they’ve done, and that’s kind of informed me on how I want to continue to explore. Whether it be through trials and different ideas but also to be able to spread and share those learnings.

Q: What kind of trial work are you doing at the moment?
A: We’re a trial site for water use and irrigation and we’re also running a trial with biochar, hoping to see improvements in soil health and also improvements in the basic chemical markers that you find on a standard health laboratory test. We’re looking at soil microbiology, we’re looking at the nutrient cycle and we’re looking at the amount of carbon stored in the soil and trying to increase that.

Q: What benefits can you see from being involved?
A: Being involved gets us to a place where you can become an early-adopter. This technology and research puts us as a position as first movers for up-and-coming agritechnology. At the end of the day, this research will lift our bottom line and improve the environment – I see it as a win-win for the natural capital we all rely on. It’s all very well and good to turn up to a forum or a nutrient field day once a year but getting involved with ION puts the research in front of me – it’s science in action. We stay involved with the movers and the shakers and the people doing the discovering. Being part of ION keeps me invigorated and inspired for what we can achieve.

“We stay involved with the movers and the shakers and the people doing the discovering.” – Daniel Kenna

To find out more about the Impact Orchard Network, get in touch with Michael: michael.kramer@zespri.com