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Cycle 9 (2020 Deadline)
Improving sustainability and resilience of Peruvian Amazon systems through silvopastoralism
PI: Carlos Gomez (cagomez@lamolina.edu.pe), Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM)
U.S. Partner: Heathcliffe Riday, U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS), U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center
Project Dates: April 2021 - March 2024
Project Overview
 | | Cattle in Cuñumbuque in San Martin Region. Photo Credit: PI Gomez |
Peru recently included the establishment of silvopastoral systems (SPS) with improved pastures in its national determined contributions (NDCs). Their goal is to reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by livestock production and to increase sustainability and resilience of pastoral systems. Livestock is among the main drivers of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. Silvopastoral systems with improved pastures can avoid pasture degradation and recover degraded pastures in the region. They can also lead to increased pasture quality and yield, which reduces the land area needed for livestock production. Thus, well managed SPS not only reduce deforestation but also increase livestock production efficiency.
Sustainability and resilience of SPS compared with other pasture-based systems have been studied by a few authors in Peru, but previously none has looked at various sustainability measures and resilience within a single study. This PEER project sought to evaluate sustainability and resilience of SPS in Peru in a holistic assessment, comparing SPS with conventional pasture-based systems (CPS) through life cycle, economic, socioeconomic, and resilience assessments, as well as amount of carbon storage.
The U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center played a crucial role in this work. The U.S. partner and other scientists from the Center shared expertise in the agroecosystem carbon storage potential of agricultural lands and provided training in additional measurement techniques and data analysis, including Landsat and MODIS satellite data to estimate productivity and ecosystem respiration of pastoral systems. Neither of these techniques had been used previously in Peruvian livestock research. Data generated in this project is being made available to regional databases on carbon storage to inform soil carbon models. The team worked also with the Peruvian Institute of Agricultural Innovation, which has a long-term relationship with farmers, to ensure they are directly involved and that the research is put into practice.
Final Summary of Project Activities
The researchers made a preliminary visit to Cuñumbuque, the main milk-producing district in the San Martín Region, to explore potential livestock associations to collaborate on the project. After identifying appropriate dairy producers, the team interviewed 20 producers and took soil samples during the rainy season. The inclusion of additional Master's students in the project team further expanded the project's scope and deepened research in key areas, such as estimating carbon stocks in the soil. The data from the interviews and sampling were systematized and analyzed for the various assessments.
The researchers found that silvopastoral systems for cattle production in the tropical region of Peru are more resilient than conventional pastoral ones due to their higher water efficiency, better economic feasibility (higher profit per animal per year), and lower greenhouse gas emissions intensity (CO2-eq/kg milk). SPS also had a larger potential to store carbon and improve physical and chemical soil traits. In both systems, the highest carbon stocks were reported at 0-15 cm depth with values of 31.4 t/ha and 34.4 t/ha, respectively, being higher in silvopastoral systems (SPS) despite the absence of statistically significant differences due to high variability coefficients in these field evaluations.
Team members presented their findings at the International Symposium on Herbivores and the International Congress on Silvopastoral Systems and were awarded a $200,000 grant from FONTAGRO to continue their work. The PEER team also produced a policy brief and shared it with institutions such as INIA and PROMEG Tropical so they can incorporate improvements into their policies or intervention programs in the Amazon region.
Publications
R. Salazar, J. Alegre, D. Pizarro, A.J. Duff, C. García, and C. Gómez. 2024. Soil carbon stock potential in pastoral and silvopastoral systems in the Peruvian Amazon. Agroforestry Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-024-00969-w
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