No reason to demonise farming
OPINION: New Zealand has said it is going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by ‘a lot’ and ‘in a short time’. One of those gases is methane. Our biggest producer of methane is livestock farming.
Life-Adviclim research is unique in that it is observing and simulating the climate and climate changes at the local scale in a number of wine regions
in Europe.
Currently the research sites are France’s Bordeaux, Val De Loire, England’s Sussex, Germany’s Rheingau and Romania’s Cotnari.
That research has been shared with the NZWRC, with a number of seminars on findings having been held in Blenheim. Now Life-Adviclim is looking to partner up with growers across New Zealand. The information gathered will be used to develop and use climate models, taking account of both climate change simulations and local climate variability to help develop a software tool to help vineyard managers manage the impacts of climate change and measure CO2 emissions.
The information Life-Adviclim is wanting from growers includes; timing of flowering and sugar content of berries, in line with climatic conditions, particularly temperature within vineyards.
If any grower is interested in finding out more, or wanting to be involved in the future, please contact Tracy Benge, Development Manager at NZWRC.
