The livestock is one of the activities with the highest emissions of greenhouse gases generated on the planet and, as a consequence, plays a role in the climate changebut in order to reduce its impact, compensate and achieve a sustainable production there are strategies they can implement, he noted Muhammad Ibrahim.
By participating in the Inter-American Congress on Water, Soil and AgrobiodiversityThe general director of the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) stated that the way in which humanity meets the current demand for food is already unstable, with consequences in the degradation of the planet's resources, such as biodiversity, and impacting the climate and other important factors.
"In many countries there is an overconsumption of products such as meat, which is having an impact on emissions and climate change globally," he acknowledged.
It is estimated that at a global level, livestock production generates around 18% of greenhouse gases, and is also one of the main causes of soil and water resource degradation.
Agrobiodiversity conservation
Muhammad Ibrahim said that there are strategies to improve soil and water use and conserve agrobiodiversity in livestock systems.
The general director of CATIE explained that at the regional level, the pasture degradation reaches more than 60% in many sites, a problem that impacts productivity and agroecological conditions.
"We have to look at that issue, how to do restoration in a sustainable intensification way," he commented.
One strategy for the recovery of degraded areas is the rotation of crops with pastures.
"While agricultural systems with livestock on crops is an old system, today the integration of livestock with crops under a circular economy system is having much more relevance for the recovery of degraded pastures and soil improvement," he stresses.
"There are examples in which they are rotating (pasture) with soybeans, with corn, with other crops, in which they are having greater production, greater improvement in soil nitrogen and at the same time improving the productivity of the animal."
The researcher points out that the conversion of the pasture, after five years, to crops to improve the soil and recover productivity are examples of sustainable livestock farming practices.
There is the example of Colombia, he explained, where the integration of crops and livestock in acid soil savannas increased profits by more than 500% with pastures improved with corn on degraded pastures, and up to 900% after three years of pasture rotation with corn and soybeans.
Greater biodiversity, higher productivity
He emphasized that CATIE has also worked with the farms-to-landscapes approach as adaptation and mitigation options, studying the impact of having trees of different species and uses as part of the biodiversity of the farms.
By properly managing the stocking rate in these silvopastoral systems, benefits can be obtained such as improved soil fertility, water conservation, reduction of heat stress, adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gases, livestock feed, and timber and non-timber products, he said.
"By integrating greater biodiversity you are achieving greater productivity in those areas," he stressed.
Muhammad Ibrahim added that crossbreeding is another mechanism that helps the sustainability of the livestock activity, because they have demonstrated a reduction of up to 5,000 liters or more of milk per lactation and a greater adaptation to climate change that allows reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.
"Our data is demonstrating the importance of sustainable intensification of livestock systems to reduce methane and greenhouse gas emissions," he confirmed.
CATIE's general director said that the combination of silvopastoral systems and rotational grazing with the application of feed supplementation, genetic improvement, a technified milking system, waste management (bio-managers for energy production) and the efficient use of water allow a reduction of up to 40% in water consumption, decrease up to 50% in energy consumption, increase farm profitability and the adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
"With baseline from 2000 to 2017 we have managed to reduce the carbon footprint from 2 kilograms to 1.1 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of milk produced and revenues have increased from $1,000 to $2,500 per hectare," he expounded.
Financial support mechanisms
Muhammad Ibrahim said that CATIE has been working with financial mechanisms and incentives for scaling up good practices that conserve and enhance biodiversity in landscapes dominated by livestock.
"If a producer is transforming their farms with good practices and is generating ecosystem services, how can they be compensated? We have managed to approve payments for environmental services," he said.
With a focus on green economy and circular economy, they are trying to transition farms to greater integration of agrobiodiversity, genetic improvement, forage and pasture improvements, and mixing livestock with adapted crops.
"In the transition process we have found benefits in situ, where they improved milk production 45%, 70% of beef, timber has increased its value, more income that the farms have had, more diversification, but also when you have a more diversified system you are reducing risks that there are in the impact of climate and you are being more resilient, greater water infiltration, in fact we have seen greater biodiversity up to 50% and the carbon footprint has been reduced by 80%," he detailed.
The academic said that to achieve carbon neutrality in livestock farming it is very important to maintain a land use in which native pastures are integrated with trees; improved pastures with trees, live fences, pine trees and commercial forestry plantation systems.
Cattle ranches have potential for the restoration and conservation of biodiversity in cattle ranching landscapes, which is the basis for improving the generation of ecosystem services, he said.
Ranches with greater plant biodiversity have a greater contribution to household livelihoods, food and nutrition security, resilience and climate change mitigation, he said.