A major two-day climate change conference is being hailed as the first of its kind, as it looks at the impact of the issue on the agricultural sector.
The NZ Agricultural Climate Change Conference (NZACCC) is being held in Palmerston North on April 8 and 9.
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Organisers believe the high number of registrations for the conference reflects the increasing importance now being put on climate change mitigation in farming.
The conference is being organised by the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC), in partnership with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc).
MPI's Neil Williams told Rural Today's Dominic George that it was an opportune time to hold the event.
"The issues of mitigating and adapting to climate change are increasingly important to farmers, and there is a lot happening this year in the policy space," he said.
He said the conference will concentrate on how the issue of climate change pertains to farmers.
"It will look at how farmers can adapt to changes coming, while the second days is all about and how do we reduce the amount of greenhouses gases on farm," said Williams.
The NZACCC will bring together scientists, Government policy advisors, farmers and industry leaders to discuss the theme of meeting the challenges of climate change with respect to agriculture.
Among the presentations will be a release of a Nielsen survey on how farmers' understanding of climate change and its impacts have changed over the last decade, and how farmers are now viewing greenhouse gas mitigation efforts in agriculture.
Listen to the full interview with Neil Williams on Rural Today.
Rural Today with Dominic George airs weekdays 5:30-6am on Magic Talk.
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