Farmers in the Lower Rangitikei district are to get financial help them control a problem weed known as field horsetail.
The persistent weed reappears each spring from an extensive root system and can spread to overtake pasture and infest cropping land.
Farmers have formed a control group with the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Council and the Landcare Trust and over the next three years will use a $316,000 grant from the Government's sustainable farming fund to investigate biological controls.
The project will begin in July with a survey by Landcare Research of field horsetail in New Zealand.
This will be followed by a survey of the plant in its native range in Europe.