Patent will help NZ, says Ravensdown

Ravensdown says patenting the environmental impact-reducing technology will keep it affordable for New Zealand farmers. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Ravensdown claims its fight to patent a technology that could drastically reduce the impact farming has on the environment has nothing to do with growing its bottom line and everything to do with keeping it Kiwi.

Ravensdown and rival fertiliser giant Ballance having been fighting a pre-granted patent application since 2004.

That fight continued this week in the High Court at Auckland because of an appeal Ballance filed to stop Ravensdown from gaining full approval.

The tussle is about the method in which nitrification inhibitors are delivered to grazing pasture to prevent nitrate leakage into waterways and nitrous oxide emissions.

Lincoln University developed a method that sprays or irrigates nitrification inhibitors instead of using fertiliser coated with the chemical and it is this technology, the method, that Ravensdown is battling to patent.

Ballance claims a patent will give Ravensdown a monopoly, which will reduce competition and could increase prices.

But Manning said if Ravensdown did not patent the technology it would leave it wide open for foreign companies to patent, which could result in Kiwi farmers having to pay "an arm and a leg" for technology that was invented in New Zealand.