WELLINGTON, March 18 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Ireland have agreed to advance their partnership on agricultural climate research, signing a joint ministerial statement in Wellington on Tuesday.
"New Zealand and Ireland will continue to advance vital research to support the development of tools to give farmers options to tackle agricultural greenhouse gas emissions without reducing production," New Zealand's Agriculture Minister Todd McClay was quoted as saying in the statement.
McClay said the partnership will build on a 2022 Joint Research Initiative (JRI) that invested 34.5 million New Zealand dollars (20.2 million U.S. dollars) to boost climate change research and science capability.
Ireland's Minister of State Noel Grealish, who visited several of the 11 projects underway during his stay in New Zealand, said they have helped accelerate understanding of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
"Agriculture is at the heart of the Irish and New Zealand economies, and we share the common goal of lowering emissions in pasture-based farming, while supporting farmers to produce more," said Grealish.
Both ministries will now identify further projects under the second JRI phase that will drive meaningful reductions in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, the statement said.
They also jointly launched the 2026-2030 Strategic Plan for the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, aiming to deepen and broaden research efforts in cropping, livestock and paddy rice, noted the statement. ■
