Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

New funding for primary industry research organisations

Updated at 7:44 am on 5 February 2013

The Government has committed more than $20 million in new funding for two primary industry research partnerships.

The Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium is getting $16 million over seven years to help fund its work in finding new technologies that farmers can use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without losing productivity.

The consortium's manager says the funding will allow the group to further the science programmes it has been working on for the last decade.

Mark Aspin says the work will include enhancing animal breeding, continue development of a vaccine against methane and inhibitory compounds against methane.

Mr Aspin says the goal of the research is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector by 30% by 2030 - while supporting the sector's growth targets of 2% each year.

Seafood Innovations, a partnership between the seafood industry and research organisations, will receive $5 million to help increase sustainable production in aquaculture and wild fisheries.

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