Christopher Luxon fronts up to Bay of Plenty residents

National leader Christopher Luxon has fronted up to Bay of Plenty residents on issues affecting the region.

Luxon, alongside senior candidates Todd McClay, Erica Stanford, Louise Upston and party whip and East Coast candidate Dana Kirkpatrick, toured the region's rural heartland, stopping into Pongakawa, Edgecombe and Whakatāne on Wednesday.

In Pongakawa, Luxon was greeted by a hall of supporters there for a public meeting and Q+A session.

One resident said the Bay of Plenty had the "dubious distinction" of having two out of three of New Zealand's toll roads, with the Takitimu North Link also being set to charge a toll after its complete.

"Are we being taken for suckers in the Bay of Plenty? Are we subsidising other people?" he said.

Luxon said toll roads would play a part in "our future going forward" because they meant infrastructure could be built faster.

"I've looked at how Denmark has done it, I've looked at other five million people countries and it's quite a normal feature.

"That's actually how we get stuff done because otherwise we will just complain that in the country the size of Japan with five million people, 'we need more roads, we need more hospitals, we need more schools', we can talk about it and admire the problems but we do need a proper toll strategy and that work's coming separately next year," he said.

About 30 kilometres away at a cow shed near Edgecombe, Luxon was questioned by Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty provincial president Brent Mountford on why Year 11 students were missing out on agriculture classes.

"I work a lot with Tauranga Boys' [College], we've got 2200 boys, 300 in agriculture, but with the new changes, Year 11, it's not going to be a stand-alone subject - it could muck things up for those kids," he said.

Luxon said his party's policy to introduce a foundational award in literacy and numeracy for Year 11 students would be a better option for many students.

"We need the foundations to work well, because actually we haven't got our kids even really doing that well enough ... the idea in the fifth year is that we get back to our basic math, basic science, basic English.

"If you're at Fielding High they can imbue the science curriculum with a bit of agriculture, but then the expert advice is don't specialise in Year 11 and specialise in Year 12 and 13," he said.

Speaking to RNZ after the conversation, Mountford said he was still concerned.

"You've got these young men who are keen on agriculture, and they go basically Year 9 and Year 10, and then in Year 11 it's not there again, then you have to reinvigorate them to get back into it Year 12 and 13.

"We're talking about our future vets; we're talking about our future soil scientists. It's a really important part, I believe, for New Zealand, of our school curriculum and it'll get buried in the science of it - not all those boys are going to be scientists either. Some of them will be the ones who are going to come out and work the land and that side of things," he said.

Shortly after that conversation, Luxon was told by another resident that some of the highly productive land around the area was being taken up by solar farms, and another man, who said "anything can be grown here" said the region should be used as a "food bowl".

Luxon said land use "went to its highest use" and land was often used to get the most value out of it.

"Government policy hasn't driven that," he said.

"Unlike farm to forestry conversion where you had a perverse set of incentives that was actually encouraging people to buy up farms and do wholesale farm conversions, we've changed that."

Luxon said he was "unaware of the solar farm issue" but it was "good to know".

"Across the country we've done more renewables in three years than the last eight ... I see solar farm guys and farm guys doing deals together. Thanks for raising that with me."

That same resident told Luxon dairy farm costs were going up.

"Yes, they are, but you're making record returns under a National government so just be thankful for something, why don't we be thankful for something," Luxon said.