Bulk wine exports surpass packaged wine volumes
Data from February 2025 shows volumes of bulk wine exports exceeded packaged wine.
The annual funding round for the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI’s) Greenhouse Gas Inventory Research fund has opened, with $2.1 million on offer.
“We’re seeking research proposals to maintain and improve our agriculture, forestry and land-use inventory,” says Steve Penno, MPI’s director of investment programmes.
He says the inventory calculates and records greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in New Zealand, as well as sequestration from forests.
“It will be used to account for mitigation technologies as they are developed and implemented on farms in New Zealand.
“It’s also an important tool in enabling New Zealand’s reporting to the New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the United Nations under the Paris Climate Agreement.”
Penno says this year MPI is seeking proposals on nine priority areas, ranging from methane to the effects of plants on emissions.
“Accurate information is essential for developing policy and verifying that we’re on the right track in efforts across Aotearoa to reduce agricultural emissions,” he says.
“The fund provides a point of focus and coordination for world-leading climate change research.”
Through Budget 2022, the Government committed $339 million through the Climate Emergency Response Fund to accelerate development and uptake of high-impact agricultural mitigation technologies. Of this, $1.5 million was added to the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Research fund for 2022/23, taking available funding to $2.1 million for new projects over the next 12 months.
Penno says the fund also contributes to worldwide efforts to drive down agricultural emissions.
“As one of the only developed countries with a largely pasture-based agricultural economy, we’re also able to share our research outcomes with less developed countries with similar agricultural sectors to boost their knowledge,” he says.
“The research generated through this fund provides us with invaluable baseline data to continue efforts to mitigate New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
“It goes hand-in-hand with the goals of the Government and sector roadmap Fit for a Better World, a key part of which is retaining our position as a global leader in producing high quality food and fibre, while reducing the sector’s carbon footprint.”
The Greenhouse Gas Inventory Research funding round is open from 14 July to 12 August. Successful proposals are expected to be announced in October.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
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