Scion, in partnership with AgFirst, is undertaking a research programme funded by the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) looking at GHG mitigation options for Māori-owned pastoral farms.

The research programme is led by Dr Tanira Kingi (Scion), based in Rotorua, and managed by Phil Journeaux (AgFirst) out of their Hamilton office.

It is aimed at understanding how diversified Māori farms like Te Uranga B2 can improve their carbon profile further with changes to the management system and land use diversification.

The programme will develop a carbon and economic profile of the current operation of the incorporation’s dairy, sheep & beef and forestry operations and then model hypothetical changes that the Committee of Management want to explore, to see the affect on carbon emissions and profitability.

The programme is collaborating with DairyNZ, B+LNZ, Federation of Māori Authorities and Te Tumu Paeroa to share the findings with the wider agribusiness community.

While this study is carried out on Māori-owned farms, it is the first research programme in the country that is modelling both farm management mitigation options and land use changes and is therefore relevant to New Zealand’s entire agricultural industry.

This news orginally was included in the Autumn 2018 newsletter of Te Uranga B2 at https://www.teurangab2.co.nz/assets/newsletters/Autumn-2018.pdf 

Source: New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre