Myanmar Dairy Excellence

Last week we came together to celebrate the career of Bill Stevenson and his outstanding contributions to the New Zealand Myanmar Dairy Excellence Project over the last five years.

It was also a great opportunity to celebrate the end of the Covid19 lockdown in New Zealand and the return to business as usual for the AgriBusiness Group team. The 25 current and past staff that joined us had a great night - possibly a bit unique internationally for such a large group to be able to come together in these Covid19 times.

Bill’s involvement in some of New Zealand’s biggest agricultural development programmes has earned him the reputation of an innovative, committed and persistent project leader who has made a lasting impact in the places he has been. Bill was part of the New Zealand pastoral farming project in Puno, Peru, in the late 70s that adopted a pioneering approach to development aid of building the capacity of local farmers with a focus on adapting farm systems to meet local conditions. This was in contrast to the approach of other countries development projects which typically focused on providing technology that often wasn’t suitable for the local context. The Puno project left a legacy that is still having positive impacts today and has helped support the current AgriBusiness Group's Peru New Zealand Dairy Support project which includes work in the Puno Region. Bill worked in other places including Pakistan, Bolivia and Myanmar. These have gained from Bill’s dedication and deep understanding of farm systems and this work has helped support the development of their dairy sectors as well as support the livelihoods of small farmers. We acknowledged Bill’s contributions to the Myanmar project and for his contribution to the development of New Zealand’s approach to agricultural development programmes. The team at The AgriBusiness Group and in Myanmar is incredibly grateful to have worked alongside Bill. Thank you!