Brazil will launch an one-billion-U.S.-dollar program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture sector, Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said on Monday.

Under the newly-released Agricultural and Livestock Plan 2010-2011, Brasilia will invest two billion reais (about 1.08 billion dollars) in the Low Carbon Agriculture Program during the 2010-2011 harvest season, Rossi told reporters.

For the next harvest season, some 3.15 billion reais (about 1.7 billion dollars) will be earmarked for agronomic practices that help environmental preservation and productivity enhancement, he said.

Government loans are also available for other low-carbon programs such as the Sustainable Production Agribusiness Incentive and the Commercial Plantation to Recover Forests, according to the minister.

Brazil has set a target to reduce the agriculture sector's carbon dioxide emissions by 4.9-6.1 percent by 2020.