Our role is to find ways for New Zealand to
meet its international greenhouse gas emission
obligations without reducing agricultural output.




  


&quot;Think globally, act locally&quot; the key message from the NZAGRC 2012 Annual Conference 


One hundred and fifty greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation focused scientists, policy makers and industry representatives made the trip to the Travelodge in Palmerston North to attend the second Annual NZAGRC Conference. The conference provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the international context in which New Zealand&#39;s agricultural GHG emissions research programme resides.  The day also included a wide range of presentations and posters covering research underway and how this may be applied on-farm in the future. 


Dr Andy Reisinger, NZAGRC Deputy Director, opened the conference by presenting an overview of the global challenge to secure food supply in an uneven world and for a growing and increasingly affluent population, whilst maintaining environmental integrity. Bringing his focus to New Zealand, he emphasised that to allow sustained absolute reductions whilst supporting projected output growth, new technologies and practices are needed.  This requires a multi-pronged effort that can expand existing options, develop new ones and creates and delivers tools for implementation. The NZ government has recognised the long term and global nature of the challenge and is providing dedicated research funding. Andy concluded by stating that the &quot;journey will inevitably have many twists and turns and some dead ends, but we are confident that it will deliver&quot;. 


Four science sessions followed, covering methane, nitrous oxide, soil carbon and integrated systems research.  Four speakers, including one leading international scientist, presented in each session. This provided an opportunity for delegates to hear the latest developments in areas outside of their regular sphere of interest. A number of the audience commented afterwards that they had gained new knowledge and some even experienced &quot;eureka&quot; moments. 


John Hutchings, General Manager (Sustainability Policy and Carbon) at Fonterra provided a motivating summing up to the conference.  In line with it being the start of the year, he provided his seven &quot;wishes&quot; for a more sustainable and efficient NZ agricultural sector: improvements in emissions efficiency; producers becoming more aware of GHG issues; optimal research investment; trusted industry participation in policy making; cost effective management of liabilities; emission efficient production of milk; and all parties working together respectfully and collaboratively going forward. He highlighted that good progress was being made towards fulfilling a number of his goals already.  


Returning to the opening comments made by Andy Reisinger, John quoted a recent article by John Vidal in The Observer (&quot;The Future of Food&quot;, 22 January 2012) which suggested that science&#39;s answer to feeding an extra 2.5 billion people on the planet is a diet of algae, insects and meat grown in a lab.  Whilst this may be one option, from a NZ dairying perspective &quot;you can&#39;t go past milk!&quot; So for the foreseeable future, the NZ research effort will continue to support local agricultural producers and industry&#39;s future goals, while keeping a close eye on how the research can be implemented globally. 


A full conference report can be found in the February issue of our Release newsletter - sign up below!





	
		
			
			
			Research 
			
			
			Work Stream 1: Methane
			Lead scientists Peter Janssen and Graeme Attwood are overseeing multiple cutting-edge research programmes at the NZAGRC that will mitigate emissions of enteric methane. 
			
			
			Work Stream 2: Nitrous Oxide
			Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent GHG with a long-term global warming potential 310 times that of CO2. In New Zealand, approximately 20% of total GHGs are N2O. 
			
			
			Work Stream 3: Soil Carbon
			Soils sequester and store atmospheric carbon via the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. 
			
			
			Work Stream 4: Integrated Systems
			The NZAGRC&#39;s integrated farm systems research programme is focused on developing the tools to design novel, practical, credible and cost-effective low GHG-emitting farm systems for New Zealand farms. 
			
			
			 
			
			
			Information Hub 
			
			
			Knowledge
			Take a look at the range of publications produced by the NZAGRC  
			
			
			Technologies
			Many of the NZAGRC&#39;s deliverables are likely to take the form of products or services that can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
			
			
			Practices
			A number of the NZAGRC&#39;s outputs are likely to be management practices or systems that can be employed on-farm to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and potentially improve productivity.