Accelerating on-farm research to reduce agricultural emissions

Industry and the Government have teamed up to accelerate the development, commercialisation, and delivery of effective and affordable solutions for farmers to significantly reduce agricultural emissions.

The collaboration, between the Government, ANZCO Foods, Fonterra, Ngāi Tahu Holdings, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms, and Synlait, will see around $172m invested during the next four years to develop practical tools and technologies for farmers.

The partnership is part of the new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions and is a great example of industry working together to get new technologies into the hands of farmers sooner.

New Zealand is already considered to have some of the best farming practices in the world and with this level of investment and industry working together we can be a leader in developing innovative new tools and technologies to reduce agricultural emissions and be a country others can look to now and in the future.

The Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions was announced as part of the $338.7m in funding allocated for the next four years to strengthen the role of research and development of new tools and technologies to reduce on-farm emissions which were announced in Budget 2022. This includes the Government funding component of the joint venture.

The agriculture sector contributes 50% of New Zealand’s gross greenhouse gas emissions and around 91% of our biogenic methane emissions.

The government has committed to a net-zero target for 2050 and reducing biogenic methane emissions by 10% by 2030, relative to 2017 levels, and 24 to 47% lower by 2050.