Nursery a growing concern

KII Tahi Nursery & Land Care is a success story.

Established in 2001, by Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi, an iwi of South Taranaki, the business is partly a result of the closure of Patea Freezing Works in 1982.

At that time, Wai-o-Turi marae, on the southern banks of the Patea River, established a vegetable co-operative, which operated until 1987.

But in 2000, when Te Puni Kokiri (the Ministry of Maori Development) approached Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi to let it know about the ministry's new Local Level Solutions funding and support programme, work began on developing a business case for land utilisation around marae in the area.

Advice was sought from Massey University to recommission the Wai-o-Turi greenhouse and provide basic training by growing tomatoes and capsicum in it.

By 2003, the nursery at Wai-o-Turi marae was growing and selling small lots of native plant life, while by 2006, Kii Tahi had produced and sold more than 100,000 individual plants.

The Taranaki Regional Council's riparian management policy has certainly helped.

In fact, in May this year, 51,000 of the young plants currently being grown by Kii Tahi will be distributed to landowners throughout the region who are involved in ensuring Taranaki's stream banks are protected by vegetation.

Horizons Regional Council, Parininihi ki Waitotara Incorporation and Wanganui District Council are also big clients.

Taipake marae, in Rangitatau East Rd, Kai Iwi, has been the site of a satellite nursery for the business for the past six years.

Kii Tahi's operations manager, Heremia Taputoro, said the nursery in Patea at Wai-o-Turi marae is much closer to the coast, so Taipake provided a more nurturing environment for young plants, away from the salt spray.

He said its inland position was also more susceptible to winter frosts and that was important because the regional councils required the plants to have lived through at least one frost before they take delivery of them after 18-24 months of development.

So, apart from the hardier flax and toetoe plants, most are reared in Kai Iwi. Cabbage and totara trees and pittosporums are staples of the nursery. All Kii Tahi's plants are native to New Zealand.

Mr Taputoro has been with the iwi-operated business since August 2003. He was made redundant when Patea Freezing Works closed in 1982 and became involved in the vegetable co-operative established at Wai-o-Turi marae.

Having continued to work as a meat processor in Australia, Dannevirke and Hawera, Mr Taputoro decided to study horticulture at Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic before being sought by Kii Tahi to oversee the nursery.

He grew up on his grandfather's farm, in the days when every home had a garden and its own vegetable patch. "When they started teaching organics on the course I thought, 'Why are we learning this?', because it's the way I've always done it," Mr Taputoro said.

He is supported at Kii Tahi by two full-time nursery assistants.