Abstract
Silvopasture is a type of agroforestry that could deliver ecosystem services and support local livelihoods by integrating trees into pasture-based livestock systems. This study modeled the financial returns from silvopastures, planted forests, and conventional cattle-pasture systems in Amazonas, Peru using capital budgeting techniques. Forests had a lower land expectation value (USD 845 per hectare) than conventional cattle systems (USD 1275 per hectare) at a 4% discount rate. “Typical” model silvopastures, based on prior landowner surveys in the Amazonas region, were most competitive at low discount rates. The four actual silvopastoral systems we visited and examined had higher returns (4%: USD 1588 to USD 9524 per hectare) than either alternative pure crop or tree system, more than likely through strategies for generating value-added such as on-site retail stands. Silvopasture also offers animal health and environmental benefits, and could receive governmental or market payments to encourage these practices.
Highlights
Expanding forest cover remains a global priority to combating trends in deforestation and global climate change
The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the financial returns of Peruvian production systems, including silvopasture, typical cattle-pasture operations, and planted tree monocultures, through the application of discounted cash flow and capital budgeting analyses
The first three rows review typical model systems defined by our project cooperators and previously completed surveys [28,29,30,31]
Summary
Expanding forest cover remains a global priority to combating trends in deforestation and global climate change. Of overall agricultural emissions, are interested in mitigating climate change through integrating forest cover into agricultural production systems [1]. Agroforestry operations combine forest or horticultural species and pasture or cropland to make mixed land-use systems that produce commercial benefits to landowners [2]. Silvopasture, a branch of agroforestry, is a strategic and managed agroecosystem in which livestock, forage, and trees or shrubs are integrated to help improve individual components [3,4]. Silvopastoral systems (SPS) diversify earnings to landowners by generating products on various harvest schedules, from daily as in the case of milk and cheese to multi-year for forest products such as fuelwood, posts, and boards [5].
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