The agriculture sector now has a new tool to support the evaluation, benchmarking and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farms.
The FarmPrint tool has been unveiled by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, allowing farmers to demonstrate their environmental performance and tackle the challenge of reducing their agricultural footprint.
The launch comes as the agriculture sector faces increasing pressure from markets, lenders and supply chains to demonstrate clear emissions reporting.
Originally developed as a prototype by CSIRO with early support from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, FarmPrint has been refined over the past 12 months through trials on CSIRO research farms.
It allows farmers, advisers and finance-sector partners to assess performance against regional benchmark data and to monitor changes in farm-level emissions over time.
Dr Murray Hall, CSIRO's senior research scientist working on FarmPrint, said testing in the field, under real-life conditions, had provided valuable feedback to ensure the tool is robust.
"This first phase of the tool embraces a cradle-to-farm-gate approach, measuring not just on-farm greenhouse gas emissions but also emissions embedded in supply chains, for example in fertilisers, chemicals and diesel," said Dr Hall.
"We look forward to working with the agricultural sector to add new capabilities, support reporting, refine calculations and help farms identify pathways to reduce emissions."
Importantly, the calculations embedded in the platform will align with evolving national and international reporting protocols.
FarmPrint aims to support collaboration and transparency. A dedicated webpage provides access to documentation and an Application Programming Interface (API) allows integration with other software and data systems.
Dr Hall said CSIRO was engaged in a range of innovative research in the digital agriculture space, and FarmPrint converts that research into a practical tool for farmers.
"FarmPrint will be an important addition to the kit bag of sustainable farm management into the future," he said.
CSIRO acknowledges the support of Macquarie Bank through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation in the early development of this tool.
