OT_112: Leftfield Innovation / Our Land & Water NGFS — Specialty Grains & Pulses Report (Jun 2019): six NZ-viable…

OT_112: Leftfield Innovation / Our Land & Water NGFS — Specialty Grains & Pulses Report (Jun 2019): six NZ-viable…

Source

https://ourlandandwater.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/NGS_190628-LFI-Specialty-Grains-and-Pulses-Report-3.pdf — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Leftfield Innovation / Our Land & Water NGFS — Specialty Grains and Pulses Report (June 2019)

NZ pulse/grain land-class evidence — the plant-protein companion to the faba primary (OT_088)

Leftfield Innovation Ltd (LFI) for the Next Generation Farm Systems project, Our Land and Water National Science Challenge, June 2019. A six-filter evaluation (consumer insight → import replacement → biosecurity → processing → agronomy → sustainability) that shortlists six specialty grains/pulses as viable near-term NZ land uses: oats, quinoa, chickpeas, soybeans, buckwheat, hemp. Supplies NZ-context yields, protein %, water and nitrogen needs, and growing regions for the food model’s plant-protein / diet-diversity path. Retrieved as a PDF, figures grep/pdftotext-verified.

Summary

An Our Land and Water (NGFS) programme report by Leftfield Innovation that screens specialty grains and pulses for near-term sustainable land-use potential in New Zealand, running each candidate through six “filters” — NZ consumer/market insight, import-replacement scale, biosecurity & food-safety risk, processor capability, existing agronomic knowledge, and sustainability. It shortlists six preferred crops — oats, quinoa, chickpeas, soybeans, buckwheat and hemp — as crops that “can be grown in current pulse and grain growing regions of NZ” (Southern North Island, Canterbury, Southland, South Island). For each it records a NZ-context potential yield range, water requirement, nitrogen requirement, growing window and (for some) whole-seed protein content, plus StatsNZ import volumes with an estimated land area needed to replace them domestically. Its value to Neobiome is as NZ pulse/grain land-class evidence — confirming which specialty protein/grain crops are agronomically viable on NZ arable land, at what indicative yields and input intensities — complementing the measured NZ faba primary (OT_088) on the food model’s plant-protein path.

Key claims

- claim: "Six preferred crops shortlisted as near-term NZ land-use options. §5 Assessment: 'the greatest opportunities in terms of responding to consumer demand, impact on hectares and price per tonne exists with replacing imports of the following grains and pulses: Oats, Quinoa, Chickpeas, Soybeans, Buckwheat, and Hemp.' §7: 'From here onwards in this report only data will be presented for the 6 preferred options … none of the others appear to be fully viable options across the 6 evaluation filters.' Table 4 intro: 'The crops listed in the table below are all crops that can be grown in current pulse and grain growing regions of NZ.'"
  source_location: "§5 Filter #2 Assessment (p.21); §7 (p.25); §8 Filter #5 Table 4 intro (p.27)"
- claim: "NZ-context potential yields (Table 4, 'Existing Knowledge Base'): Quinoa '3-5t/ha'; Oats '5-8t/ha' (cultivars L5 or Armstrong); Soybean '2-5t/ha'; Chickpea '2- 4t/ha' (Kabuli type); Buckwheat '1.5-2t/ha'; Hemp '800-1000kg/ha seed' plus '3-4 t/ha for fibre'. NB these are COMPILED agronomic ranges, not new field-trial measurements (info sourced from seed companies / FAR / overseas — Table 6)."
  source_location: "§8 Filter #5 Existing Knowledge Base, Table 4 (pp.27–28)"
- claim: "Whole-seed protein content given for two of the six: Chickpea '20% protein deficient in methionine and cystine' (end-use column); Buckwheat 'High protein 13-15%'. Quinoa described qualitatively only — 'High in lysine. High in iron. Good protein' (no %). Soybean, oats, hemp: no protein % stated in this report."
  source_location: "§8 Filter #5, Table 4 end-use column (pp.27–28)"
- claim: "Water and nitrogen requirements (Table 4): Quinoa water '375 -450mm', 'Low N input'; Hemp water '250-300mm', 'Requires 100 -130 kg N/ha'; Oats water '450-600mm', 'lower N inputs 50kg'; Buckwheat 'Very drought sensitive. Needs irrigation', 'Low N requirement less than 50kgN/ha'; Soybean 'Needs irrigation', 'Legume fixes N, no N input'; Chickpea 'Reasonably drought tolerant'. Sustainability Table 5 classes Soybean and Chickpea as 'N fixing' and Quinoa/Hemp/Buckwheat as 'Low N input, low loss'; Assessment: 'Any of these crops could be grown in NZ with a minimal environmental footprint and would have the potential to be part of an integrated sustainable farm system.'"
  source_location: "§8 Table 4 water/issues columns (pp.27–28); §9 Filter #6 Table 5 + Assessment (p.29)"
- claim: "Growing regions and windows (Table 4 'Where to grow'): Quinoa '-4 to 35C … Southern North Island Canterbury'; Oats 'Canterbury or Southland'; Soybean 'Soil temperature over 10C … Mature after 140 days … Southern North Island, Canterbury'; Chickpea 'Temperate legume average temperature of 15C … October sown. 130 days growing season. Southern North Island, South Island'; Buckwheat '10C for germination, frost sensitive especially until 2 leaf stage'; Hemp 'Most areas. Avoid heavy soils … 100-110 growing days grain'. Confirms the specialty grain/pulse set targets NZ's established arable regions (Southern North Island, Canterbury, Southland, South Island), not marginal grazing land."
  source_location: "§8 Filter #5 Existing Knowledge Base, Table 4 'Where to grow' column (pp.27–28)"
- claim: "Import-replacement scale (Table 1, 'StatsNZ Grain & Pulse Imports 2017 & 2018', with an 'Estimated Hectares required to produce' the imported volume): Oats (rolled/flaked) 2017 6,141t imported, 850 ha, ~6000t already grown in NZ; Quinoa 2017 400t, 100 ha, ~100t grown NZ; Chickpeas 2017 1,985t, 570 ha, 'nil' grown NZ; Soybeans 2017 1,903t, 500 ha, 'nil' grown NZ; Buckwheat 2017 250t, 70 ha, ~40t grown NZ; Hemp 'No data' on imports, ~100-200t grown NZ. (Also listed but not shortlisted: Kidney beans 6,637t/2500 ha, Lentils 1,586t/500 ha, Sunflower 1,950t/350 ha, Millet, Spelt, Rye.) ⚠ the per-crop implied yield in this table (e.g. buckwheat 250t/70ha ≈ 3.6 t/ha) uses a rough assumed yield and disagrees with Table 4's agronomic 1.5-2 t/ha for buckwheat — trust Table 4 for agronomy, Table 1 for import scale only."
  source_location: "§5 Filter #2 Import Statistics, Table 1 (StatsNZ 2017 & 2018), p.20"
- claim: "Plant-protein processing gap: 'Currently there is no ability to extract protein from plants in New Zealand' (§1 Exec Summary, p.3). §7.1: 'NZ does not have extractive applications to separate out various parts of the plant, i.e. plant protein.' Example: NZ-made Sunfed Chicken 'is made from … extracted protein from yellow marrowfat peas grown and processed in Canada'; participating domestically 'could also transform around 40,000ha of land use in NZ.' 'Building a protein fractionation factory could cost from $6M to $20M depending on type of processing, scale and product purity.'"
  source_location: "§1 Executive Summary (pp.3–4); §7.1 Processing Capability (pp.25–26)"

Neobiome Intelligence relevance

Supplies NZ pulse/grain land-class evidence for the food model’s plant-protein and diet-diversity path (diet_mode = vegetarian/vegan; the legume/pulse cell that OT_088 faba anchors). Two direct contributions:

1. Bounds the plant-protein constant with a NZ crop set, not a single crop. Combining Table 4 yields with the stated whole-seed protein %:

   • Chickpea 2–4 t/ha × 20% ≈ 400–800 kg protein/ha/yr
   • Buckwheat 1.5–2 t/ha × 13–15% ≈ ~200–300 kg protein/ha/yr (buckwheat is a pseudocereal, not a legume — low-protein staple, not a protein crop)
   • Soybean 2–5 t/ha — protein % not stated in this report, so no per-ha protein is derived here (soy is ~36–38% protein in general references, but that number is NOT in this source and is not applied)
   • Faba (OT_088, measured NZ primary) 5.6 t/ha × ~28% ≈ ~1,550 kg protein/ha/yr

   The takeaway for the engine: faba sits at the high end; chickpea, soybean and especially buckwheat sit well below it. A realistic community mixed pulse plot would fall below the faba-optimised figure — reinforcing the decision to keep the food model’s LEGUME_PROTEIN_KG_HA constant conservative (OT_088’s ~1,500 kg/ha is an achievable-with-faba upper-realistic value, not a mixed-plot floor).

2. Confirms land-class and input constraints for the pulse/grain path. All six crops are agronomically viable only in NZ’s established arable regions (Southern North Island, Canterbury, Southland, South Island) — i.e. good arable land (broadly LUC 1–4), not the marginal grazing land the model differentiates by su_ha[LUC]. This bounds where a community can realistically grow a plant-protein crop and separates it cleanly from the grazing path. On inputs, soybean and chickpea are N-fixing (no synthetic N) — a good fit for the regenerative/low-input scope (D_001); hemp needs 100–130 kg N/ha — a poorer fit. On the food↔water coupling (D03): buckwheat is “very drought sensitive” and soybean “needs irrigation”, quinoa needs 375–450 mm and oats 450–600 mm, while hemp is comparatively low-water (250–300 mm) — feeding the same regional-PED irrigation logic already wired for veg (CR_033).

Caveats for the model:

1. Compiled ranges, not measured trials. Table 4 yields are drawn from seed companies / FAR / overseas info (Table 6 explicitly says chickpea relies on “overseas information”) — indicative land-class evidence, softer than OT_088’s measured 55-paddock faba survey. Firming any of these into an engine constant needs the underlying FAR / Plant & Food primary (RT below). Update 2026-07-21 (RT_362): the HEMP row is now firmed — measured NZ hemp seed yield 804–1,849 kg/ha (LIT_089, measured two-season Canterbury trial) + multi-site 950–1,800 kg/ha (OT_168) corroborate and slightly extend this report’s compiled 0.8–1.0 t/ha hemp figure (yield only; no NZ-measured hemp seed-protein — hemp stays on the oil axis). Chickpea, soybean and quinoa remain compiled only — no retrievable NZ measured primary (see RT_362).
2. Whole-seed crude protein, basis (as-is vs dry-matter) and digestibility unstated — same limitation flagged for faba.
3. Table 1 vs Table 4 internal inconsistency on buckwheat yield (import-table implied 3.6 t/ha vs agronomic 1.5–2 t/ha) — use Table 4 for agronomy.
4. 2019, market-led framing. The report’s purpose is import-replacement / value-add commercial viability, not community self-sufficiency; the agronomic figures transfer, the market/consumer material does not.

Research targets

Documents to retrieve

• RT_362 — Plant & Food Research / FAR crop-specific agronomic primaries (measured NZ trial yield + protein) for chickpea, soybean, quinoa and hemp, plus any OLW “six star grain and legume crops for NZ farmers” per-crop factsheets. Purpose: firm this report’s compiled Table 4 ranges into calculation-grade constants, the way OT_088 does for faba.

Research gaps

• RT_363 — NZ soybean and quinoa whole-seed protein-content primary. This report gives chickpea (20%) and buckwheat (13–15%) protein but omits soybean and quinoa %, so the plant-protein path cannot yet be extended to those crops from a NZ source without fabricating a protein figure.

Notes

PDF (39 pp) read in full via pdftotext; all key-claim figures grep-verified against the extracted text. File metadata title: “Microsoft Word - 190628 LFI - Specialty Grains and Pulses Report.docx” (drafted 28 Jun 2019). Author Leftfield Innovation Ltd; funder/programme Next Generation Farm Systems, Our Land and Water National Science Challenge. Consumer-insight work sub-contracted to Pinstriped Leopard (1 importer + 14 B2B interviews + 1 consumer focus group) — market evidence, out of scope for NI. url left blank (no confirmed public URL captured at retrieval). data_quality: verified per the primary verbatim read; the compiled-vs-measured provenance limit is captured as a caveat, not a downgrade of the read fidelity.

Connections

Links to

Sources (4): CR_033 · LIT_089 · OT_088 · OT_168

Decisions (1): D_001: Neobiome food production — regenerative…

Referenced by

Sources (7): LIT_089 · LIT_098 · OT_164 · OT_165 · OT_168 · OT_169 · OT_183

SSI indicators (1): I02: Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture

EDT domains (1): D02: Smart Food Systems & Agriculture