Macquarie Agriculture Fund demonstrates data-driven decarbonisation
Sharing knowledge of sustainable solutions to drive emissions reduction
Macquarie Agriculture Fund – Crop Australia (MAFCA) is targeting major clean energy benefits in Australian agriculture, working alongside the CEFC and the CSIRO.
$100m
CEFC equity
Benchmarking
emissions reduction
Data-driven
decarbonisation
This is an important investment into research and development that will see us adopting various energy efficient technologies on the properties to make environmental savings, while maximising soil health and productivity.Elizabeth O’LearyGlobal Chair, Agriculture and Natural Assets, Macquarie Asset Management
Our investment
The CEFC invested $100 million in Macquarie Agriculture Fund – Crop Australia (MAFCA) in 2018 to support sustainable on-farm asset management practices and to demonstrate how data could help drive decarbonisation.
MAFCA invests in farms across multiple climatic zones, production regions and end markets, harnessing data, science and technology to improve agricultural sustainability and reduce on-farm emissions.
MAFCA has purchased and is managing large-scale row cropping assets, such as wheat and other grains, and permanent crops including avocados, targeting improved on-farm energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.
our impact
Decarbonisation and natural capital
Agriculture is crucial to the Australian economy and accounts for 55 per cent of our land use and 74 per cent of water consumption.1 The sector is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, representing 18 per cent of Australia’s emissions in 2023.2
The enormous decarbonisation potential of natural capital means the sector is well placed to make a major contribution to our transition to net zero emissions – which is why CEFC investments in the sector are focused on demonstrating how technology, farm management and measurement can be part of the solution.
New and evolving technologies and research are key to decarbonising agriculture, but require patient, large-scale capital. Large-scale investments by institutional investors are also key to lifting agricultural productivity and putting underperforming farmland onto a sustainable footing for the long-term. These types of large-scale investments can also be pathfinders for smaller-scale family farms in terms of technology and the adoption of best in class farming systems.Heechung SungHead of Natural Capital, CEFC
FarmPrint for emissions reporting
As part of the investment, the CEFC and MAFCA created the Energy, Emissions and Efficiency Advisory Committee (3EAC) with the CSIRO to promote the early adoption of new technologies to identity potentially viable decarbonisation opportunities and to increase the uptake of climate solutions by Australian agriculture.
The 3EAC developed and piloted FarmPrint, a web-based tool which makes it easier for farmers to calculate and report on their on-farm emissions.
With its “cradle-to-gate” emissions measurement approach, FarmPrint conforms to Australian and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reporting standards, covering on-farm emissions as well as embedded supply chain emissions, including those from fertilisers, chemicals and diesel.
The CSIRO is now developing FarmPrint for broader use across the agriculture sector. See the CSIRO website.
1 Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website, Snapshot of Australian Agriculture 2024, accessed 26 April 2024.
2 Ritchie, H. 2021, How much of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food? OurWorldInData.org.
