A lack of hard data on soil carbon levels and highly variable results from measuring work done is a concern to Massey University pastoral professor of agriculture Jacqueline Rowarth.
She supports calls for a lot more research in this area and says it's one of the reasons why it would not be feasible to include soil-stored carbon in an emissions trading scheme at this stage.
Professor Rowarth says it could result in New Zealand farmers who have already built up carbon levels in the soil being heavily penalised under Kyoto rules.
