Fonterra eyes EcoPond pilot to reduce on-farm emissions

The two-year pilot will begin in August and involve up to 200 Fonterra farmers in Waikato and Southland to trial the scalability and effectiveness of the service.

Developed by Agnition, Ravensdown's innovation and investment subsidiary, and Lincoln Univesity, EcoPond uses polyferric sulphate and sulphuric acid to reduce and prevent methane emissions in effluent ponds. Studies have shown the treatment can reduce a farm's effluent pond emissions by at least 90%.

While the previous EcoPond system required significant on-farm infrastructure for installation, the new dosing service uses a truck to dose the pond as-needed, reducing deployment costs.

Fonterra's director of sustainability Charlotte Rutherford says novel technology, like EcoPond, is one of several levers the co-op is pulling to make progress towards its target of a 30% intensity reduction in on-farm emissions by 2030 (from a 2018 baseline).

"While there's no silver bullet, we expect around a 7% reduction in our on-farm emissions to come from novel technologies. We're starting small with this pilot in regions where the EcoPond trucks can currently operate to test effectiveness and scalability.

"We continue to explore new tools, services and technology to support farmers, and we're working alongside Agnition to understand what would need to be considered before we could scale EcoPond to benefit more co-op farmers."

Agnition chief executive officer Jasper Van Halder says they're focused on finding, developing and investing in high-potential opportunities to solve real-world challenges in the agriculture sector.

"EcoPond is highly effective at reducing on-farm methane emissions - and it's available for farmers now. By partnering with Fonterra, we can deliver this simple and practical solution at scale, benefiting the industry and the role our sector can play in delivering a sustainable future."

Effluent ponds on average represent about 5% of a Fonterra farm's total emissions, which include emissions associated with land use change and those released from peat soil, minus any carbon removals.

The treatment has shown promising results in a trial on the Net Zero Pilot Dairy farm, a project within the Co-op's partnership with Nestlé. Use of a custom EcoPond system on the farm has reduced methane emissions from the treated effluent samples by around 97%.

Eligible farmers will be emailed a link to register their interest in the pilot in early May and the 200 pilot farmers will be confirmed before the end of June.

Funding for the pilot comes from the co-op as well as recently announced customer incentives, which include on-farm solutions made available through separate agreements with Mars and Nestle.

Further information about the full suite of on-farm solutions, designed to further improve emissions efficiency, will be shared in June.