Emissions funding details released at Sustainable Agriculture Summit

Details of the funding allocation were shared at the Sustainable Agriculture Summit held in Toowoomba, Queensland on Thursday, in front of a room of 150 representatives from across the agriculture industry.

A total of $30.8 million over four years will be used to build on the existing Carbon Farming Outreach Program, in a bid to accelerate on-ground action to reduce agriculture and land emissions.

A further $28.7 million will go towards improving greenhouse gas accounting in the agriculture and land sector over a four year period.

Meanwhile another $4.4 million will provide a cash injection for the new Zero Net Emissions Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre, due to be established in July, with the cash to be doled out over 10 years.

Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen said the government would be standing beside farmers to help them make the changes they needed to make in their own operations.

"We're not going to make it the sector's problem to solve on its own," he said.

"We're going to do it together.

"Decarbonisation is a whole-of-government effort, in fact its a whole-of-economy effort, a whole-of society effort... it has to be all in."

Mr Bowen also said told the room that three key principles would underpin the Agriculture and Land Sector Decarbonisation

"We won't be imposing arbitrary sector wide targets or top-down approaches," he said

"Second, action on climate change is necessary to ensure food security, and action on climate change won't come at the expense of food security.

"Third, the agricultural and land sector will not be taken for granted to do the heavy lifting to offset emissions from other sectors that carry on with business as usual."

Agriculture minister Murray Watt said the bulk of the funding would ultimately go towards on-farm activity to help lift farmer's knowledge and capacity to make changes to reduce their emissions.

"That money will go toward trusted organisations that are already in the field, that farmers already work with who can provide that information and enable them to make changes," he said.

"Some of these changes don't have to cost more money, in fact they can save money.

"If farmers are shown the way to reduce their fertiliser usage for instance, that will save them money and that will save emissions."

Mr Watt said while the details of how the funding will be distributed still need to be locked down, in the past the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry had funded natural resource management groups and Landcare groups to deliver these kinds of initiatives.

Victorian cattle and sheep producer Mark Wootton of Jigsaw Farms said he believed the additional funding would be very valuable to producers.

"I think it's really important that producers have the knowledge which gives the power to undertake the changes we have to do on farm level," he said.

National Farmers Federation CEO Tony Mahar said the support Mr Bowen and Mr Watt outlined on agriculture's role in the transition to net zero during the summit was reassuring and showed they had listened to farmers.

"The agriculture sector has significant concerns it will be the fall guy for other sectors to reduce their emissions through offsets on farmland," he said.

"National emissions reduction must be a shared responsibility and agriculture will play its part, but that part has to be fair and not comprise productivity, profitability nor food security."

Mr Mahar said the principles outlined by the ministers today aligned with what the sector had been calling for - close collaboration with the agricultural sector, prioritising food security, and making sure farmland is not a carbon dump for other sectors.

"This is consistent with what the NFF has been seeking as we work towards achieving the ongoing reduction in agricultural emissions trajectory," he said.

"Any credible climate plan needs to partner closely with farmers who manage more than half of Australia's landmass.

"It's reassuring to hear the government is on the same page and won't be imposing targets on farmers."