I hope the CSIRO first reads up thoroughly on Terra Preta research in Brazil. It could save a lot of money in reinventing the wheel!

Without doubt, this is the most positive step in the right direction that this government has announced. The CSIRO must very closely follow Trugger's excellent suggestion of scrutinising the Terra Preta work that has taken place for thousands of years.

I am pleased with the outcome as it may be a way of doing the right thing by land holders and the environment by adding a positive note in the potential for agriculture to play a role and generate an income in the Carbon Trading Schemes.

This can be achieved by supplying product to biochar producers and then in turn returning it to the soil for increased production.

It will be an effective re-growth management tool with a positive outcome for agriculture and the environment as the organic mater produced from this event can be can be used to produce power, sequester carbon and improve the productivity of farming land.

I read that there is a company called Barmac in Qld that has some product available for sale.

It would be desperately hoped that some of this R&D might take place in tropical Australia - north Qld or the potential cropping soils of the NT or northwest of WA.

It is these areas that, with climate change, may be needed for crop, fibre and biofuel production. Why spend it all in temperate areas that may well see declining relevance in agriculture?

But...I bet it won't happen, as CSIRO has so few staff in the tropics now.

And yes, Brazil does have a very active soil carbon R&D program, along with many great scientists. Our scientific links to this geographic area need major strengthening.

I agree that Petras work must be studied. However, what effect do coal mine waste dumps have on emmissions? What effect does coal dust have on soil enhancement and water retention?

After all, coal is ancient organic material and coal dust may benefit depleted and sandy soils.

All the spin merchants in the world will not aid the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for the Environment if they do not stop treating primary producers as environmental vandals.

They appear to be still fighting the shearers' strike issue over 100 years later.

Times have moved on and farmers are more enviromentally savvy, they are also no longer required by banks and government departments to clear fell, as they were forced to do in the past.

Excellent news!

Aborigines and, more recently, Aussie farmers have been producing this stuff for 40,000 years. We call it charcoal. And it forms on the outer surfaces of tree stumps and large fallen branches etc whenever we do a cool burn in our native forests.

It is wrong to state that it is only formed in the absence of oxygen because it is also formed when the hot coals from a mild winter afternoon fire are extinguished by cool evening air and a heavy dew.

And once the outer or inner surface of the wood has a coat of charcoal then any decay and loss of carbon is severely retarded.

I have 80 year old posts and stumps on my place (with 1900mm RF) that are still intact because they are coated in charcoal.

When cattle tread on it, or rub against it, or litter falls on it, the charcoal is incorporated into the soil as it has done for 40 millenia.

But if the boffins need a sexier name for it, and the bimboscenti need to see a PhD thesis on it before they will give farmers due credit for what they have always done then, fine, go for it.

But you might also need to jam some common sense down the throats of the greens who have been doing their utmost to stop us doing it.

So does this mean old smokey fires not getting enough oxygen, but leaving heaps of coals to throw on our gardens are also good for our environment?

How can anything burn without oxygen, or too little oxygen, without making a heap of smoke? This flies in the face of common sense, and no doubt costs more than a few cents.

Biological matter, including wood, if heated in an enclosed space will char. This char can be incorporated into the soil to make a Terra Preta soil which locks up the carbon for thousands of years. The gasses created in the process can then be put through further processing and made into a form of synthetic diesel fuel. Germany did this during both World Wars and are still using the process to this day. The only CO2 emissions will be from the diesel engine and this being from a renewable resource, becomes carbon neutral.