Opinions grow on benefit of soil forum | Rural

An article in Country Wide magazine which questions the involvement of MAF and the funding agency Agmardt in the upcoming Soil Carbon Conference at Te Papa is being described as "archaic" by conference organiser Nicole Masters.

Ms Masters said the coverage in this month's issue neglects the views of countless farmers using biological techniques to successfully sequester carbon.

She was responding to an editorial by Country Wide editor Terry Brosnahan where he said: as New Zealand soils were "loaded with organic carbon" there was little opportunity for farmers to use soils to sequester carbon and earn carbon credits as was the case in Australia where soils were depleted.

Mr Brosnahan also wrote it was puzzling that MAF and Agmardt were sponsoring "a conference which promotes the idea that NZ farmers have the solution in their soils to solve carbon emissions issues".

The editorial said that the conference was pushing biological farming which wasn't mainstream "and doesn't have proven science behind it".

However Ms Masters, formerly of Katikati, refutes that claim.

"There are huge opportunities for New Zealand farmers to implement practices that build the biological functioning of their soils. There is in fact no downside to the implementation of soil-friendly practices.

"The only loser in this debate is the products which have negative impacts on soil function and water quality," Ms Masters said.

"The article highlights the very need for the New Zealand Soil Carbon Conference right now, so we can air the findings from successful innovative farmers, supported by multi-disciplinary scientists, in order to have some constructive conversations."

Ms Masters said farmers were often 10 to 15 years ahead of researchers.

"Anyone with an interest in agricultural extension knows that there is a huge amount of evidence to support the fact that it is the farmers who are the innovators, who discover new methods to solve on-farm issues, whilst science then provides the data to support their findings."

She said that claims the conference lacked top New Zealand soil scientists was unfounded with Brent Clothier, science leader at Plant and Food, Jacqueline Rowarth, director of agriculture at Massey University, Markus Deurer (P&F) and Graham Shepherd all speaking at the conference.

"Yes, we have Australian Professor Tim Flannery, as he is offering a chance to assess the science between climate change and soil carbon levels. This is the crux of the issue: agriculture requires multi-disciplinary generalists to communicate research between different fields."

Ms Masters took issue with a number of points raised by the magazine including that New Zealand soils are in a "steady state of equilibrium".

"Take a spade and see how far your rooting depths go, how deep does your lovely dark topsoil go? Here is your visible carbon. But how much further down could your roots go? The possibilities are endless - ryegrass [roots] have been found to depths below 6m.

"Attempting to prevent farmers from engaging in such discussions is archaic at best," Ms Masters said.

She said that attendees to biological seminars in the past year included representatives from some of the largest farming and growing companies in New Zealand.

"Now those companies are seeing the impacts the current model is having upon their profit margins and soil quality.

"It seems a shame that there are interests in New Zealand who wish to stop innovative farmers and growers and scientists from questioning and finding solutions to the dilemmas facing agriculture."

The second New Zealand Soil Carbon Conference will be held at Te Papa in Wellington, from September 15 to 17.