Abstract
Livestock production is a pivotal source of income and agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Mexico and Peru. Several management and technological options, with enteric methane mitigation potential, have been evaluated and their scaling is anticipated to contribute towards achieving GHG emission reduction targets. Yet, widespread adoption of promising mitigation options remains limited, raising questions as to whether envisaged emission reduction targets are achievable. Using locally generated data, we explore the mitigation potentials of technologies and management practices currently proposed to mitigate enteric methane emissions, for cattle production systems in the higher emitting countries of Latin America. We then discuss barriers for adopting innovations that significantly reduce cattle-based enteric methane emissions and the major shifts in policy and practice that are needed to raise national ambitions in the high emitting countries. Using the latest science and current thinking, we provide our perspective on an inclusive approach and re-imagine how the academic, research, business and public policy sectors can support and incentivize the changes needed to raise the level of ambition and achieve sustainable development goals considering actions all the way from the farm to the national scale.
Highlights
Cattle production is a pivotal source of income for Latin American countries, where a combination of large water reserves and vast natural resources create a conducive environment for animal husbandry
Increasing the dietary inclusion rate to 1% of dry matter intake (DMI) resulted in reductions of 67.2% methane emissions (Roque et al, 2019a)
It is undeniable that cattle is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the AFOLU sector for most Latin American countries and it would be practically impossible to achieve national emission reduction targets without considering significant reductions from the cattle sector of Latin America
Summary
Cattle production is a pivotal source of income for Latin American countries, where a combination of large water reserves and vast natural resources create a conducive environment for animal husbandry. In Costa Rica, the national herd comprises 1.5 million cattle raised on 1.04 million ha and contributes 1.8% of national GDP and 33% of agricultural GDP (OECD, 2017). Mexico’s cattle herd of 33.5 million (Servicio de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera (SIAP), 2019), is distributed around half the national territory (197 million ha) It contributes 1.6% of national GDP and 43% of agricultural GDP (OECD, 2018b). Reconciling the goals of benefiting from business and livelihood opportunities associated with cattle production while reducing GHG emissions associated with cattle production is a challenge that regional governments are grappling with This is important considering national commitments in the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Proportion of Emission reduction livestock-source to target national GHG emissions
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