Five years of collaborative research, innovation and practical implementation.
Since its establishment in 2021, Trust Alliance New Zealand (TANZ) has brought together agricultural organisations, technology providers, researchers and government agencies to investigate how digital technologies can improve the way agricultural information is collected, managed, shared and used.
The agricultural sector generates substantial amounts of information. Yet much of this information remains fragmented across farm management systems, industry organisations, supply chains and government agencies.
Farmers and growers are repeatedly asked to provide the same information. Organisations use different definitions and reporting requirements. Important relationships between farms, land, production activities and regulatory obligations are often difficult to establish.
These challenges affect agricultural productivity, environmental management, regulatory efficiency, financial services and international market access.
Rather than approaching these challenges as isolated technology problems, TANZ and its members have undertaken a sequence of collaborative research projects.
The work began by investigating how farmers could securely share information and demonstrate compliance without repeatedly entering the same data.
Subsequent projects explored digital credentials, supply-chain traceability, common data definitions, farm identity, digital wallets and the relationships between farming enterprises, land and regulatory information.
More recently, the research has progressed into knowledge graphs, geospatial analysis, AI-assisted agricultural intelligence and the governance of AI agents.
Each project has contributed to a deeper understanding of the capabilities needed to support trusted agricultural information exchange.
TANZ receives funding from members and other sources to undertake collaborative research and development projects. We bring together specialist expertise, businesses and industry participants to deliver agreed project outcomes and advance trusted digital infrastructure for agriculture.
TANZ operates a collaborative model that respects and protects members’ intellectual property rights. TANZ does not retain ownership of intellectual property developed through its projects. Intellectual property remains with participating members or is made available through open-source arrangements, subject to project agreements.
TANZ provides independent governance oversight to ensure that stakeholder interests, intellectual property rights and agreed project obligations are respected and protected.
Explore TANZ’s collaborative research programme, beginning with the Foundational research carried out in 2019 t0 2021. This work was carried out before the formal incorporation of Trust Alliance Incorporated. However, it’s useful to understand the issues we uncovered and what informed the projects we have executed since 2021.
Each project provides links to the previous and next project, allowing visitors to follow the progression of research and development. This has been a journey of small steps; reflecting on progress at each step; expanding the boundary of rationality; investigating both domestically and internally and determining where to develop next.
Mistakes have been made and lessons have been learned.
Chris Claridge Chair Trust Alliance
TANZ’s foundational research explored how agricultural organisations could securely exchange trusted information across independent systems. The work investigated persistent farm and enterprise identifiers, shared data standards, decentralised identity, verifiable credentials and consortium governance. It established the architectural principles for interoperable, permissioned agricultural data sharing that subsequently informed the Digital Farm Wallet, FarmID and governed agricultural intelligence.
Learn more about the Foundational Research: Agricultural Identity and Trusted Data Infrastructure
Trust Alliance investigated creating a safe and streamlined digital solution for Farm Environment Plans (FEPs) that allowed farmers and growers to easily collate and quickly share data, and turn compliance work into a value-added activity.
The project started November 2021 to consider how digital tools could positively impact a complex regulatory web experienced by farmers and growers.
Solutions were explored looking at a decentralised data sharing framework including tools, protocols and the entire ecosystem.
Learn more about the Digital Farm Environment Plan Project
In 2022 the Potato Value Chain and Market Access project investigated how trusted digital information could support greater transparency, traceability and information exchange across the potato supply chain.
The research explored how producers, industry organisations and supply-chain participants could improve access to reliable information, reduce duplication and support market access requirements.
Explore the Potato Value Chain and Market Access case study →
The Repurposing Compliance Information project investigated how information collected for agricultural compliance could be captured once, securely shared and reused across multiple organisations.
Using digital identity, verifiable credentials and digital wallets, the research explored how farmers could control the sharing of trusted information with regulators, industry organisations, financial service providers and buyers.
The project established the principles of capturing information once, sharing it with authorisation and protecting it throughout its use, laying foundations for interoperable agricultural data exchange.
Explore the Repurposing Compliance Information Project →
The Link Aotearoa project investigated how consistent agricultural data definitions could improve information sharing between farmers, industry organisations, regulators and digital service providers.
This work helped establish foundations for agricultural data interoperability, knowledge graphs and trusted digital infrastructure.
Explore the Link Aotearoa | Agricultural Data Definitions Project →
The Digital Farm Wallet project investigated how farmers and agricultural organisations could establish trusted digital identities, exchange verified information and reduce repeated collection of agricultural data. The project completed in December 2025
Building on earlier research into digital wallets and verifiable credentials, the project developed a prototype farm registry connecting authoritative information about farming enterprises, land parcels, resource consents and regulatory obligations.
By December 2025, the registry contained 1,204 farming enterprises in Selwyn District associated with active resource consents, demonstrating how knowledge graphs and AI-assisted processing could establish reusable farm identities and support agricultural intelligence.
Learn more about the Digital Farm Wallet Project
This project investigated whether artificial intelligence could reduce the cost of establishing trusted digital farm identities by accurately reading and extracting information from irrigation permits, resource consents and other regulatory licences.
The research examined how information about licensed activities, water allocations and operating conditions could be linked to individual farming enterprises, land parcels and other farm attributes using authoritative records.
The pilot explored how AI-assisted processing could replace time-consuming manual interpretation of regulatory documents, providing a more accurate, efficient and scalable approach to connecting farm identities with their regulatory and operational context.
Learn more about the Digital Farm Identity – AI Assisted Permit and Consent Pilot
The Canterbury Freshwater Project is developing a connected agricultural information infrastructure linking farm identities, land parcels, resource consents and freshwater activities across Canterbury.
Using authoritative public records, geospatial information, knowledge graphs and AI-assisted processing, the project connects information about farming enterprises, water allocations, irrigation activities and regulatory obligations to support freshwater management, compliance and agricultural intelligence.
The project demonstrates how trusted farm identity and interoperable data can reduce duplicated information collection, improve regulatory oversight and enable farmers, industry organisations and government agencies to access more reliable freshwater intelligence.
Explore the Canterbury Freshwater →
