Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases
New Zealand is a member of the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
What is the Global Research Alliance?
The Mission of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA)is to bring countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions. It was launched in December 2009.
How is New Zealand involved in the GRA?
New Zealand is a founding member, the current GRA Secretariat, is one of the Co-Chairs of the Livestock Research Group, and was GRA Council Chair (2011-2012).
The New Zealand Government committed $45 million to the work of the GRA in 2010 and in 2016 announced a further 20 million out to June 2020 to fund research in the area of greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in pasture based temporal livestock systems.
New Zealand is represented in the GRA by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), working closely with the environment and climate change groups from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Ministry for the Environment (MfE). MPI contracts the NZAGRC to manage New Zealand’s involvement in the Livestock Research Group and New Zealand’s GRA science research activities.
What is the GRA Livestock Research Group?
The Livestock Research Group (LRG) is focused on reducing the emissions intensity of livestock production systems and increasing the quantity of carbon stored in soils supporting those systems.
The LRG is co-chaired by NZAGRC Director, Dr Harry Clark and Dr Martin Scholten, Wageningen UR, Netherlands.
The LRG Vision is to:
- Increase agriculture production with lower emissions
- Improve global cooperation in research & technology
- Work with farmers and partners to provide knowledge
Read more or view the stories below for more information on the work of the LRG and GRA.
Improving Thailand’s GHG inventory for nitrous oxide emissions from manure management
22/11/18
The NZAGRC led the organisation of two technical workshops recently: (1) Hosted by Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development (DLD), a workshop ‘Improving Thailand’s GHG inventory for nitrous oxide emissions from manure...
Institutional strengthening in South East Asia for mitigating livestock methane emissions
22/11/18
The NZAGRC is working with Indonesian researchers and policy makers to help develop a project entitled “Institutional strengthening in South East Asia for mitigating livestock methane emissions”. The project was launched in May 2018...
International work update
22/11/18
The NZAGRC continues to deliver a wide range of services to the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), which has 50 member countries around the world.A large portion of the NZAGRC’s support is in acting as...
Low emissions livestock: Supporting policy making and implementation through science in East Africa
22/11/18
The NZAGRC are working with the GRA and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank, the NZAGRC assisted in the...
NZ draws Ackim back from Africa
30/09/18
A love affair with New Zealand has drawn the NZAGRC’s new Post-Doctoral Fellow, Ackim Mwape, back to Palmerston North. Ackim was living in his home city of Lusaka, Zambia, when he was offered an NZAID scholarship to study environmental...
Media release: NZ-led rumen microbial genome work published in prestigious journal
20/03/18
A global scientific project led by New Zealand researchers, which has generated a reference set of genome sequences of microbes found in the stomachs of sheep and cattle, has been published in the respected international scientific journal Nature...
Low emissions development of the beef cattle sector in Argentina
21/11/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving productivity while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from beef production in Argentina. The...
Options for low emission development in the Kenya dairy sector
21/11/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving milk production while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from dairy production in Kenya. The...
Options for low emission development in the Sri Lanka dairy sector
21/11/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving milk production while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from dairy production in Sri Lanka....
Countries seek to improve measurement, reporting and verification of greenhouse gase emissions and mitigation in the livestock sector
14/11/17
A new paper titled Measurement, reporting and verification of livestock GHG emissions by developing countries in the UNFCCC: current practices and opportunities for improvement has been released. The paper describes basic requirements for...
GRA Research Flagships
01/11/17
When it met in 2016, the GRA Council approved the development of four flagship programmes as a way of defining research priorities and attracting resourcing. The flagships are: Enteric fermentation Agricultural greenhouse gas inventories...
Towards low emissions livestock: the GRA's Enteric Fermentation Flagship
01/11/17
The GRA’s Enteric Fermentation Flagship is beginning to take shape with four initial project proposals presented to the Council when it met in August. The Enteric Fermentation Flagship is being set up to support countries account for and...
Two vacancies at INRA Paris
13/09/17
Scientific Officer of the international research program on ‘Soils for Food Security and Climate’ 1 year position, based at INRA, Paris, France. The global initiative ‘4 per mil. Soils for Food Security and Climate’ of...
Sheep from low-methane-yield selection lines created on alfalfa pellets also have lower methane yield under pastoral farming conditions
08/09/17
Jonker, A., S. Hickey, C. Pinares-Patiño, J. McEwan, S. Olinga, A. Díaz, G. Molano, S. MacLean, E. Sandoval, R. Harland, D. Birch, B. Bryson, K. Knowler, and S. Rowe. 2017. Sheep from low-methane-yield selection lines created on...
New scholarship to support greenhouse gas research
29/08/17
A new $400,000 scholarship programme to build global expertise on climate change, agriculture and food security will boost New Zealand’s contribution to agricultural greenhouse gas research say Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett and...
GRA Livestock Research Group Newsletter: July 2017
13/07/17
Welcome to the July 2017 edition of the Livestock Research Group’s newsletter. USDA’s Acting Chief Scientist, Dr Ann Bartuska, remarked at the recent Livestock Research Group (LRG) meeting how much the group has grown in subject area...
Mitigating nitrous oxide and manure-derived methane emissions by removing cows in response to wet soil conditions
26/06/17
T.J. van der Weerden, S. Laurenson, I. Vogeler, P.C. Beukes, S.M. Thomas, R.M. Rees, C.F.E. Topp, G. Lanigan, C.A.M. de Klein, Mitigating nitrous oxide and manure-derived methane emissions by removing cows in response to wet soil conditions,...
GRA Livestock Research Group Meeting: April 2017
01/06/17
The annual meeting of the Livestock Research Group (LRG) of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) was hosted by the United States in Washington D.C. from 10- 12 April 2017. It was attended by representatives from 28...
Searching deep within for methane battlers
24/05/17
The role of microbes in producing methane is being studied by an Irish scientist, writes Jarrod Booker. While science is helping us discover vast new worlds beyond our own, the worlds explored by Sinead Leahy are far too small to be seen by the...
CCAFS 2016 Annual Report
19/05/17
CCAFS 2016 Annual Report is now available noting significant progress on agriculture under climate change was made in 2016. Read the report NZAGRC & CCAFS The NZAGRC through the GRA LRG work programme is pleased to to work with CCAFS on...
CCAFS MRV summary report
19/05/17
The NZAGRC through the GRA LRG work programme is pleased to to work with CCAFS on improving countries’ ability to monitor, report and verify GHG emissions from livestock. A summary of the MRV report is available. Read the report
Low emissions development of the beef cattle sector in Uruguay
19/05/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving productivity while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from beef production in Uruguay. View...
Supporting low emissions development in the Bangladesh dairy sector
19/05/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving milk production while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from dairy production in Bangladesh....
Supporting low emissions development in the Ethiopian dairy cattle sector
19/05/17
The NZAGRC in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has released a report evaluating the potential for improving milk production while reducing enteric methane emission intensity from dairy cattle production in Ethiopia....
Sharing New Zealand's success story
17/05/17
The Livestock Research Group of the Global Research Alliance is documenting countries’ successes in reducing on-farm emissions intensity of livestock production at the same time as addressing other concerns related to increasing...
Global links strengthen agriculture research
01/06/16
A new round of research funding and the appointment of a Special Representative are big steps forward for New Zealand’s involvement in the Global Research Alliance, Ministers Paula Bennett and Nathan Guy say. “New Zealander Hayden...
PhD Opportunity: Stabilized carbon in Grasslands Management
19/04/16
Visit globalresearchalliance.org /n/phd-opportunity-stabilized-carbon-in-grasslands-management/ for more information
Improved productivity reduces GHGs and improves food security and livelihoods
01/04/16
Article at http://www.wfo-oma.com/farmletters.html Acknowledgements This project is a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (www.fao.org) and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research...
FACCE ERA-NET ERA-GAS call
24/03/16
ERA-NET for Monitoring and Mitigation of Greenhouse gases from Agri- and Silvi-culture (ERA-GAS) call for proposals is open. ERA-GAS aims to strengthen the transnational coordination of research activities and provide added value to research and...
Outcomes from the meetings of the Livestock Research Group and Integrative Research Group
24/03/16
Over fifty people attended the recent meeting of the Livestock Research Group in Melbourne, Australia recently. This was the eighth meeting for the group, held 19-20 February 2016 immediately following the international Greenhouse Gas &...
Nitrous oxide emissions from grazing cattle urine patches: Bridging the gap between measurement and stakeholder requirements
31/01/16
F.J. Cook, F.M. Kelliher, Nitrous oxide emissions from grazing cattle urine patches: Bridging the gap between measurement and stakeholder requirements, Environmental Modelling & Software, Volume 75, January 2016, Pages 133-152, ISSN 1364-8152,...
COP21 Agricultural Events
26/11/15
Overview of thematic events including agriculture and forestry: http://newsroom.unfccc.int/media/501938/lpaa_program.pdf Tuesday 1 December The LPAA "Focus on Agriculture" (learn more) at COP21 aims to show...
Global solutions to reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals are feasible, because the microbes causing the emissions are similar around the world
12/10/15
The New Zealand-led “Global Rumen Census” project analysed the microbes responsible for ethane emissions from a wide range of ruminant animals around the world. The project found imilar bacteria and methanogens dominate in nearly all...
A modified version of the Molly rumen model to quantify methane emissions from sheep
26/06/15
Vetharaniam, I., R. E. Vibart, et al. (2015). "A modified version of the Molly rumen model to quantify methane emissions from sheep1." Journal of Animal Science 93(7): 3551-3563. We modified the rumen submodel of the Molly dairy cow model to...
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock: Best practice and emerging options
19/12/14
The publication is a joint initiative of the Livestock Research Group (LRG) of the Global Research Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform. It was commissioned by the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research...
New Zealand contribution to international research efforts
24/10/14
New Zealand maintains an active role in the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases (GRA). NZAGRC provides leadership in livestock emissions research and training in emissions measurement throughout the world. Training...
Heritability estimates of methane emissions from sheep
06/06/13
Pinares-Patiño, C. S., Hickey, S. M., Young, E. A., Dodds, K. G., MacLean, S., Molano, G., Sandoval, E., Kjestrup, H., Harland, R., Hunt, C., Pickering, N. K. and McEwan, J. C. (2013) “Heritability estimates of methane emissions from...
Overseas technicians train on methane measurement
22/01/13
Overseas technicians train on methane measurement | Radio New Zealand News Scientists from developing countries are in Palmerston North for a training course on measuring methane emissions from forage-fed farm animals. Nine...
New Zealand Fund for Global Partnerhips in Livestock Emissions Research: Targetted meetings presentation
05/07/12
Recent meetings in Palmerston North, Hamilton and Christchurch to discuss Round two of the New Zealand Fund for Global Partnerships in Livestock Emissions Research were held successfully. A copy of the presentation is available for...
Can we improve interpolation of N2O emission measurements by using environmental factors?
01/07/12
Chiba, M.K., Cichota, R., Vogeler, I. (2012). Can we improve interpolation of N2O emission measurements by using environmental factors? In: Advanced Nutrient Management: Gains from the Past - Goals for the Future. (Eds L.D. Currie and C L....
Technical Manual on Respiration Chamber Designs
24/04/12
Technical Manual on Respiration Chamber Designs Released: March 2012 Edited by: Cesar Pinares & Garry Waghorn Download here
Animal Selection, Genetics and Genomics Whitepaper
29/06/11
Following the May 2011 Workshop in Auckland, New Zealand; a White Paper was prepared for the New Zealand Government, whcih discussed how a network of scientists working in the area of Animal Selection, Genetics and Genomics, might progress the...
Animal Selection, Genetics and Genomics Workshop Report
29/06/11
Download the report (1.69MB)
N2O Chamber Methodology Guideline Workshop Report
29/06/11
Download this report (0.57MB)
RMG Network Whitepaper
29/06/11
Download this report (0.27MB)
Rumen Taxonomy Framework Report
29/06/11
Download this report (0.44MB)
SF6 Tracer Techniques Guidelines Workshop Report
29/06/11
Download this report (0.55MB)
