I am completing a Master of Engineering degree at the University of Waikato. My field of study is Assisted Harvesting in the Kiwifruit industry with a focus on the human factors aspect of Kiwifruit harvesting. As part of my research, I would like to establish what health and safety issues the Kiwifruit industry is dealing with. Much of the online data I have found so far is quite broad by industry and I think most Kiwifruit issues would be reported under Agriculture? I think that some Kiwifruit-related injuries may be filed under transport or warehousing in some instances. What I would ideally like to write about is injuries in the sub-category of Horticulture, the sub-sub category of Kiwifruit orchards and even a break down of what Kiwifruit activity resulted in the most injuries e.g. pruning, harvesting, etc along with the types of injuries being reported.

The aim of the work we are conducting is to address several factors:
- Help resolve the shortage of labor during orchard operations, mainly during fruit harvest.
- Identify the aspects of Kiwifruit harvesting that are causing injuries.
- Broaden the demographic of people able to conduct picking activities.
- Reduce fruit loss due to harvest damage.

If we can understand the negative impacts and injuries caused by Kiwifruit harvesting, we can design a new system that should see a reduction in these events. We need to know how people are being affected currently such as:
- Are there tripping or falling injuries while walking under the canopy?
- Is the repetitive picking motion causing arm injuries?
- Does carrying the picking bag cause back pain?