New Zealand farmers are being asked to cough up $4.9 million a year to help reduce greenhouse effects caused by flatulence of their millions of sheep and cattle.

Last year New Zealand signed the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and agreed to reduce production of greenhouse gases which are suspected of being a major cause of climate change.

The government plans to introduce a tax to help pay for research into livestock emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, which account for more than half of the country's greenhouse gases.

Reuters