New Cultivar Innovation
Dr Keith Funnell
Senior Scientist, Team Leader of Hybridization & Introgression
I'm from a farming background in the Manawatū (NZ) and educated in Horticultural Science and environmental plant physiology to PhD level. I spent a few decades at Massey University before the last decade or so at Plant & Food Research’s Te Papaioea | Palmerston North campus, contributing to breeding and development of new crops for the international market; mostly ornamental crops, focussed on wide crosses, and utilising in vitro technologies to assist. Since 2013 I've been involved in an increasing number of joint projects with Māori partners, accessing taonga plant species and weaving mātauranga Māori together with pūtaiao (science). This has involved traditional food crops, rongoā rākau (medicinal plants), developing restoration plans for taonga, as well as their development as ornamental crops.