Satellite monitoring of quantity and quality of available biomass in pastoral livestock systems

Code:
ATN/RF-19787-RG
Initiative:
Joint proyects
FONTAGRO Amount:
USD 200.000
Counterpart Amount:
USD 947.547
Other agencies
USD 200.000
Total Amount:
USD 1.347.547
Participating countries:
Argentina Argentina Colombia Colombia Costa Rica Costa Rica Uruguay Uruguay
Funding source:
FONTAGRO Amount 15% Other agencies 15% Counterpart Amount 70%

Executive Summary

Pastoral livestock production contributes 46% of GDP and is key to LAC's food and social security. Currently, pastoral bovine production systems face the challenge of increasing their profitability by reducing their environmental impact, since high costs and a growing concern about their contribution to global warming threaten their development. Knowing the quantity and quality of available biomass is key to making management decisions that improve the productive efficiency and profitability of these livestock systems, while enabling the monitoring, reporting and verification of the effect of GHG emission mitigation strategies. However, frequent field measurements that cover an entire property are expensive and often impractical. Over the last five years, the availability of satellite data on a spatial and temporal scale compatible with weekly management decisions of individual paddocks has advanced enormously, and prediction models of the quantity and quality of biomass based on remote sensors are starting to appear. For this technology to result in productive improvements, it is necessary to have reliable, locally validated models and mechanisms that make the information available to different users. The main objective of this project is to lower the cost of estimating in real time and with adequate precision the quantity and quality of biomass available in pastoral livestock systems through a satellite tool.

The technological solution

Lower the cost of estimating in real time and with adequate precision the quantity and quality of biomass available in livestock systems in LAC through a satellite tool.

Results

i) Real-time prediction models of biomass quantity and quality available from locally calibrated remote sensors for relevant forage resources in four LAC countries with temperate, subtropical and tropical, semi-arid and humid climates.

ii) Models validated and implemented in demonstration units and commercial farms

iii) Technicians, livestock producers and managers of national GHG inventories trained through workshops. Dissemination material on the activities and applications of the tools developed.


Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiaries of the project are, on the one hand, livestock producers in pastoral systems of Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Costa Rica, who will have information that will allow them to improve grazing management decisions and therefore forage harvesting and profitability of their systems; and on the other hand, the government entities in charge of GHG emission inventories that will be able to more accurately quantify the magnitude and intensity of GHG emissions and thus monitor, report and verify the effectiveness of national mitigation policies.

Sustainable Development Goals

No poverty Zero Hunger Decent work and economic growth Responsible consumption and production Climate action Life on land Partnerships for the goals

Main donors

Participating Organizations

Executor
  • Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - Argentina
Co-executor
  • Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - Costa Rica
  • FACULTAD DE AGRONOMÍA. UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES (FAUBA) - Argentina
  • Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA) - Uruguay
  • Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA) - Colombia
Associated
  • Asociación Argentina de Consorcios Regionales de Experimentación Agrícola (AACREA) - Argentina
  • Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB)
  • Cámara Nacional de Productores de Leche (CNPL-CR) - Costa Rica
  • MGAP - Uruguay

Graphics and data

Financing by country (in USD)
FONTAGRO Amount Other agencies Counterpart Amount

Geolocated Map

Researchers

Project leader Argentina

Martín Durante

Researcher

Fernando Lattanzi

Researcher

Mariano Oyarzábal

Sponsors
BID
IICA
With the support of
Fondo Coreano de Alianza para el Conocimiento en Tecnología e Innovación (KPK)