While the federal Government continues to cut spending across all areas, one sector in particular is being funded to record levels.
The largest agricultural co-operative research centre to date has been announced with a record $300 million across 10 years of which $87m will come from the federal Government.
Operating in a similar way to other CRCs, such as those focused on sheep or beef, the uniting project will bring together 73 partners from across industry, education and government with the intention of pushing overall agricultural methane production well below net zero by 2050.
Interim CEO Matthew Morell from the University of Queensland, where he is director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, said the project was an exciting one to be involved with, given the focus on a warming planet.
Prof Morell said the emphasis on successful answers to the climate problem would always be based on economic reality with the necessity to profit as a way of ensuring viability.
"A lot of the technology and science has already been done in this space but there is a need to demonstrate and prove to farmers that these solutions can be economically feasible," he said.
The initial bid for funding came out of the University of Queensland with Queensland Department of Forestry and Fisheries realising the project they envisaged was too big to tackle on their own.
The CRC will now cover all states and the Northern Territory including 10 universities, 40 small and medium sized enterprises and grower groups.
Prof Morell said one of the biggest challenges facing graziers in the north was lowering methane emissions across vast properties where feed additives or injections would not make sense.
Helping lead the research will be the University of New England at Armidale which will focus on developing solutions to reduce methane emissions in livestock production, including the development of nutritional supplements and pasture.
There will also be continued work creating genetic selection tools for cattle breeding, all designed to create a methane-free agricultural supply chain, with "everybody doing their bit", Prof Morrell said
These will be through research programs focusing on low-emissions plant solutions, alongside methane-free cattle and sheep.
Ongoing genetic research into low-emissions breeding headed up by the university will be aligned with the CRC's goal.
"UNE is one of our primary sources of expertise in this space so it was a no-brainer to bring them onboard," said Prof Morell.
Other "aligned or incorporated" research will include some invested in by MLA.
In the cropping arena research will look at fertiliser use, carbon sequestration, and impact of livestock emissions from different crops and their varieties during red meat production.
"This space is complex and not well co-ordinated," he said.
"It is our role to forge relationships across projects and bring the best ideas forward to further develop them and take those back to growers," Prof Morell said.
"This is the power of scale."
