Kazi Talaska is our summer intern at LandWISE. She is  studying the newly developed Bachelor of Horticulture at Massey University.

Kazi has come from an international background, originally from Bogor in Indonesia, spending her school years there, before deciding on New Zealand for University.

Bogor is just outside Jakarta the capital city, home to the country’s agricultural and fisheries university. Bogor also has the highest annual rainfall in Indonesia.

Kazi chose to study horticulture because:

“I have always had a strong affinity towards the natural environment. After an internship with a local nursery during high school, working with plants became a possibility. After graduating it seemed like the natural path to go to as horticulture itself looked so globally dynamic and interesting to me.”

Kazi’s role with us is to support our significant workload of summer trials in Levin and Gisborne as part of Future Proofing Vegetable Production and our ongoing management of the MicroFarm here in Hawke’s Bay. We are keen to expose her to the variety of work we undertake at LandWISE – from soil sampling and testing for growers, running field days and workshops on sustainable Nitrogen management, sprayer and fertiliser equipment calibrations.

So far Kazi has been busy maintaining our trial blocks – including all the trimming, leaf plucking, and wire tucking in the NanoVineyard. On regular trips  to Levin and Gisborne as part of FPVP, Kazi has assisted the LandWISE team in data collection, and Quick N soil testing in trial plots. She has also been working on the landscaping at the Centre for Land and Water.

“I’ve really enjoyed the grower engagement and field work we’ve been doing – I can grasp the whole system when we are able to listen to growers discuss their problem, and help them find the right solution.”

Kazi says the experience so far has helped her to understand the challenges the Horticulture industry faces, and bring significance to the concepts she’s learning at University.

“I can relate what I’m studying to what is important and potentially achievable for growers”

We look forward to working with Kazi for the rest of the summer, and supporting her to gain valuable skills for her career in the horticulture industry!