Diversifying tree based grazing systems to create smallholder price premium opportunities for milk production in the Amazonian Arc of Deforestation.
Principal Investigator: Professor Toby Pennington, Professor in Tropical Plant Diversity, Department of Geography (Oct 2019 – Mar 2022).
The aims were delivered through four objectives:
01.
Establish four seed orchards for Inga and other native tree species, that become hubs for distribution of Inga seed across Mato Grosso state which aims to solve the issue of availability of Inga seed, since they cannot be stored.
02.
Establish 20 smallholder Inga-integrated SPS using the species I. edulis that improve milk yield and enable price premium opportunities for distinctive agroecological products. These can also act as demonstration projects for the Mato Grosso region.
Background
Soils in the Amazon and many other parts of Latin America are often nutrient-poor and unsuited to long-term agricultural use. Land converted to agriculture from natural vegetation tends to remain productive for only a few years, necessitating continual advance of the agricultural frontier; leading to deforestation, and food insecurity and poverty.
Agroforestry (AFS) and silvopastoral (SPS) systems incorporate trees into crop and livestock systems and can dramatically impact on the maintenance and restoration of long-term productivity in degraded and abandoned agricultural landscapes. They are well suited to use by poor rural smallholders and provide major benefits to livelihoods and food security, as well as to local economies.
Inga is a diverse genus of legume trees, found across tropical Latin America. These fast-growing trees capture atmospheric nitrogen and fertilise the soil around them. They can be grown in poor, degraded soils, out-competing weeds, and invasive species. They are especially promising in Amazonian Brazil, where their use in SPS systems offers smallholders a price premium of up to 250% on milk.
An Oxfam report (1) outlined that 12m people in Brazil are experiencing extreme food insecurity. While progress has been made in recent years, food production regions are under growing pressure. Pressures from climate change, erosion and exhaustion of productive land and soils coupled with growing populations are placing increasing pressure on the region’s natural resources and land. Deteriorating environmental conditions lead to decreased productivity and subsequently place rural livelihoods and small holder farming under threat.
About the Project
The impacts of this project aimed for establishment of a framework necessary for the development of systems delivering more sustainable and productive agricultural landscapes in the humid Neotropics. The aim was to achieve this through enhanced AFS and SPS for milk and livestock production.
It was hoped that the ultimate beneficiaries of this work would be rural communities in lower-middle income countries in Latin America. Via the resilient AFS and SPS systems, in times of climatic change and population growth, rural communities can benefit from reduced poverty, improved food security, and reduced pressure on natural vegetation and biodiversity. It is hoped that the outcomes from the project will directly support Brazil in delivery of its commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Key aims of the Project
01.
To improve AFS and SPS in Latin America by maximising species and genetic diversity of the multipurpose legume (Inga). The aim is to increase awareness, knowledge and uptake among scientists, AFS / SPS practitioners (NGOs and smallholders), and local and national rural, environmental, and agricultural policy-makers in Latin America of the potential of Inga-based AFS and SPS.
02.
To diversify tree based grazing systems to create smallholder price premium opportunities for milk production in the Amazonian Arc of Deforestation.
Key aims of the Project
01.
To improve AFS and SPS in Latin America by maximising species and genetic diversity of the multipurpose legume (Inga). The aim is to increase awareness, knowledge and uptake among scientists, AFS / SPS practitioners (NGOs and smallholders), and local and national rural, environmental, and agricultural policy-makers in Latin America of the potential of Inga-based AFS and SPS.
02.
To diversify tree based grazing systems to create smallholder price premium opportunities for milk production in the Amazonian Arc of Deforestation.
The aims were delivered through four objectives:
01.
Establish four seed orchards for Inga and other native tree species, that become hubs for distribution of Inga seed across Mato Grosso state which aims to solve the issue of availability of Inga seed, since they cannot be stored.
02.
Establish 20 smallholder Inga-integrated SPS using the species I. edulis that improve milk yield and enable price premium opportunities for distinctive agroecological products. These can also act as demonstration projects for the Mato Grosso region.
03.
Run four technical training workshops.
04.
Develop a user-friendly, non-technical booklet and mobile phone app to promote SPS techniques, co-designed with local communities.
Gender
IOV has participative management as a fundamental principle in all its work. Their projects strive to increase gender and generational diversity at all levels.
Its management and financial board comprises five women and three men. In this project, the team was gender balanced and prioritised beneficiary families where men and women work equitably. The value chain of AFS and SPS permit gender diversity in all activities, meaning a strengthening of the family and communities, as well as increased income generation.
The project aimed to strengthen family farming, thereby cutting across gender and generations, by using alternative, sustainable systems, which reconcile environmental recovery and income generation.
This was extremely important and urgent, given the current fragility of the policies in this sector in Brazil. At a family and community scale, this project, added to IOV’s wider programmes, has strengthened the involvement of women both through participation and income generation as measures were put in place to ensure that there were opportunities for people of different genders to be involved in the project. Capturing this data allows the project a baseline from which to measure, monitor, and work towards improving gender dynamics.
The success of the project demonstrates the good relationship between IOV and University of Exeter. The team is very aligned and working collectively. The partnership has provoked new ideas and joint actions, such as the successful joint proposal submitted to University of Exeter’s GCRF QR fund, to support a Gender Equality and Food Security project.
About the Project partners
IOV were the core delivering and scaling partner in the project; they have wide experience of SPS and AFS in Mato Grosso state. Since 2000 IOV have worked with more than 1,000 smallholder families to develop SPS and AFS that improve their livelihoods, as well as developing a seed collector network (Amazon Gateway Seed Network) with more than 100 participants that sell local forest tree seed species. IOV provide micro-credit to help finance producers’ set up costs, plus expertise in tropical AF systems and social organisation.
UNEMAT offered technical support for the monitoring of silvopastoral areas to increase the quality and yield of the systems by defining corrective actions. They assisted with workshops and field days for farmers. They supported data analysis and activity planning. They created educational materials on pasture management and tree management in pastures. In terms of the microcredit scheme, they supported by i) defining the working instruments for the technical field team (records, methodology of visits), ii) creating and disseminating publications of the community bank (Guide to Accessing Credit, aimed at farmers in general, and produced a Project Evaluation Manual, aimed at the members of the credit evaluation committees).
Key activities which took place
IOV Microcredit Scheme
During the project an opportunity to scale up areas of IOV’s work through the form of a micro-credit scheme became a viable option for this project. The microcredit scheme helped IOV to scale up their operations in order to meet the high demand from farmers wishing to set up and / or expand AF and SPS in the Mato Grosso region. The resilient AF and SPS created by the farmers with IOV’s specialist advice, expertise and assistance will enable rural communities to benefit from reduced poverty, improved food security and reduced pressure on natural vegetation and biodiversity, in times of climatic change and population growth.
Microcredit workshop with family in Alta Floresta.
Outcomes and impact
01. Establish four seed orchards.
Four communities took part in the project in the municipalities of Alta Floresta, Carlinda, Nova Guarita and Colíder. All seed production orchards were planted at the end of 2020. Each of the four orchards has an emphasis on different ingá species.
02. Establish 20 SPS systems.
20 farms (five in each municipality) each established 3 ha of silvopastural pasture system, 60 + ha in total. Five producers have already increased the project areas with their own financial resources. Farmers are managing their areas well, taking into account both forage production (which is directly related to system productivity), the growth of native tree species and, in some cases, the production of food for consumption. Additional income is generated by planting between the lines of the systems, pastures are establishing and forest species are growing.
Technical follow-up activities are carried out with each farmer and the community, regarding the development of pastures, forest and agricultural species. All farmers attended an exchange on pasture and tree management and they are adopting technical knowledge and already performing reinventions / readjustments, leading to greater resilience and continued success. Greater efficiency of the systems, with greater forage production / hectare, is practically tripling the cattle stocking capacity of pastures. There has been identification of the main tree species recommended for the systems. Ultimately, increasing the areas of SPS (60 ha), improves the soils in the Amazon, increasing food security and relieving poverty of rural smallholders as well as improving the local economies.
03. Four technical training workshops.
One technical training workshop ran and seven individual monthly advice sessions (since group workshops not possible due to Covid-19) were held with farmers, covering: installation of electric fence, management of pasture with tree species, knowledge exchange on pasture management and SPS marketing support, legal aspects for the implementation of microcredit and regional training for credit committees. Attendance at the first technical workshop resulted in the design of the SPS for this project and also in the creation of the 1st edition of the Tree Guide for pastures, which largely results from prior IOV projects. Ultimately, training food producers and creating educational booklets in AFS and SPS will increase community resilience to the impacts of climate change on food production, thereby increasing food security and biodiversity in these areas.
04. Production of SPS system booklets and mobile phone app.
Overall, four publications have been created: 1) 1st edition of the Trees Guide for Pastures, 2) Instructions for Good Pasture Management, 3) Guide to Accessing Microcredit, 4) Guide to Evaluating Microcredit Applications.
The mobile phone app of trees in pastures called ‘AmazonPasto’ was created as a way of increasing impact by reaching new audiences beyond the end of the project. It is a dynamic and more accessible tool that informs, communicates and interacts with professionals, students and farmers who are interested in knowing the importance of wooded pastures. There was a launch event held in 2021, which was broadcast live and recorded by the partner channel NAFA / UNEMAT and was attended by IOV, plus staff from UNEMAT, UFSCar and University of Exeter. Research on trees in pasture will continue, and this, plus information from farmers can be uploaded directly to AmazonPasto, expanding its reach and utility.
05. Additional outcomes.
a) Microcredit – A series of four workshops were run in Alta Floresta, to promote the opportunity to apply for microcredit to start / build on AFS activities. Workshop participants helped IOV to spread the word and encourage people to apply from their communities. The IOV credit team visited the municipalities of Portal da Amazonia to publicise the microcredit scheme and create the decision-making committees. 31 people attended a regional meeting to review and be trained in the Bank’s operating rules, credit lines. Seven Credit Analysis Committees formed in six municipalities. These committees are responsible for approving and monitoring the microcredit applications in their area, with advice from IOV.
b) Construction of a regional seed house for seed storage, to increase the capacity of the seed network.
c) Realisation of a Project Completion Meeting – The focus was challenges and strategy for sustainable livestock farming in the Amazon Portal: the use of native tree species as a strategy of resilience and productivity of livestock.
Lessons learned and next steps
There were problems with only five SPS areas, two of which related to climate (excessive rainfall (flooding) or a prolonged dry season), and three changed circumstances for the owners. The success and results of the first SPS systems encouraged new farmers to adopt them and the original beneficiaries to expand their systems.
The pandemic resulted in some changes to project strategies, especially because it hindered many group activities held regionally that were previously important for collective learning. To mitigate these problems, community activities were delivered in smaller groups, rather than the regional meetings. The project held a round of meetings with the initial beneficiaries to jointly assess the expected and achieved results. Overall, this required more work from the team, but ultimately it generated good results (such as a greater sense of integration among participating farmers within the same community).
The project’s journey through the pandemic taught lessons in being more resilient and building online alternatives for support when face-to-face contact was impossible. The use of tools such as the internet was essential for the circulation of information and communication in general. We previously considered this type of online communication not to be feasible both because of the difficulty of internet access for rural communities and the lack of knowledge of technological tools. However, we learned that these obstacles could be overcome, so much so that we developed our mobile phone app, ‘AmazonPasto’, as a low-cost way of increasing the project impact in a manner that is geographically unlimited.
New partnerships have been established with universities to continue research on trees in pastures across Brazil – in the Cerrado, Pantanal, Pampa and Caatinga biomes. These include the Federal University of São Carlos, Federal University of Pernambuco and Federal University of Santa Maria. Supporting the longer-term monitoring of tree projects in pastures is extremely important to scale up these systems. Some species in our demonstration systems (e.g. Brazil nut and timber species) will not provide a harvest for 5-15 years, so such long-term monitoring is essential for full evaluation. Research into the various functions of trees in the pasture system (e.g. N fixation that may improve soils) is also of paramount importance for both AFS and SPS, but also would provide vital information for forest restoration.
Early development of an agro-silvopastoral system.
Key activities which took place
IOV Microcredit Scheme
During the project an opportunity to scale up areas of IOV's work through the form of a micro-credit scheme became a viable option for this project. The aim of the microcredit scheme is to help IOV scale up their operations in order to meet the high demand from farmers wishing to set up and/or expand AF and SPS in the Mato Grosso region. The resilient AF and SPS created by the farmers with IOV’s specialist advice, expertise and assistance will enable rural communities to benefit from reduced poverty, improved food security and reduced pressure on natural vegetation and biodiversity, in times of climatic change and population growth.
“Pull out or photo?”
Links
'Green gold' tree offers Brazil deforestation hope – BBC News
University of Exeter supports the expansion of Instituto Ouro Verde’s microcredit scheme "Banco Raiz" | IngaSystems
IngaSystems | Tree-based tropical agricultural solutions (exeter.ac.uk)
Inicio | IOV (ouroverde.org.br)
