With an investment of USD 1,347,547, MPI New Zealand, the Global Research Alliance (GRA) and FONTAGRO will finance a project called “Satellite monitoring of quantity and quality of biomass available in pastoral livestock systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)”, to be developed in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay.
Pastoral livestock contributes 46% of GDP and is a key component of food and social security in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, pastoral cattle production systems face the challenge of increasing their profitability while reducing their environmental impact due to high costs and a growing concern about their contribution to global warming, aspects that threaten their development. In this sense, knowing the quantity and quality of available biomass is key to adopting management decisions that improve the productive efficiency and profitability of these livestock systems and, at the same time, allow monitoring, reporting and verifying the effect of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions mitigation strategies. However, frequent field visits, covering all the farms, are costly and sometimes very complex to implement.
To address this issue, FONTAGRO, the Ministry of Primary Industries of New Zealand (MPI) and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse gases (GRA) have joined forces to co-finance the project “Satellite monitoring of quantity and quality of biomass available in pastoral livestock systems in LAC” for USD 1,347,547. The initiative will be carried out by INTA (Argentina), AGROSAVIA (Colombia), INIA(Uruguay), INTA (Costa Rica) and FAUBA (Argentina), MGAP (Uruguay), AACCREA (Argentina), GRSB (Argentina) and the National Chamber of Milk Producers of Costa Rica.
The main objective of the project is to lower the cost of estimating, in real time and with precision, the quantity and quality of biomass available in pastoral livestock systems through a satellite tool. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, this technological solution will mainly benefit livestock producers in the countries participating in the initiative, but at the same time it will be very useful for government entities in charge of preparing GHG emission inventories, and thus monitor, report and verify the effectiveness of national mitigation policies.
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About FONTAGRO
FONTAGRO was created 1998 with the purpose of promoting the increase of the competitiveness of the agri-food sector, ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources and the reduction of poverty in the region. The objective of FONTAGRO is to establish itself as a sustainable financing mechanism for the development of agricultural technology and innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean and Spain, and to establish a forum for the discussion of priority topics of technological innovation. The member countries are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. In the last 21 years 167 regional agricultural innovation platforms have been co-financed for an amount of US $ 124 million, which has reached 452 institutions and 33 countries worldwide.