WWF Zimbabwe says it will work with the Global Methane Hub as part of a new initiative to develop satellite-based decision support systems that help farmers optimize livestock grazing to improve nutrition, increase productivity, and reduce emissions.
The Time2Graze project, funded by the Global Methane Hub, will equip farmers in Latin America and Africa with tools that assess pasture availability to identify the optimal time to graze livestock.
As part of the project, WWF Zimbabwe will develop a Decision Support Tool (DST) for use by farmers in Binga district, Matabeleland North province.
An estimated two-thirds of agricultural land is used for grazing livestock around the world but the availability of grazed forage varies significantly by the season and is increasingly threatened by climate change. Pasture availability and digestibility impacts both milk and meat output, as well as methane emissions, which are produced during digestion.
By tracking pasture levels across areas of 10mx10m every five days, the Time2Graze project would provide near-real-time satellite-based estimates of grassland biomass so that farmers can more effectively decide where and when they allocate pasture to their cattle. Improvements in feed digestibility of just 10% have been found to result in 20% reductions in methane emissions.
Said project lead, Hlengani Dube: “Smallholder farmers in Binga are expected to improve their pastures through improved grazing management practices”.
Keep Reading
- Ama revives cattle auction system
- CSC Boustead Beef strikes gold in US
- High costs paralyse poultry farmers
- Zim’s poultry sector registers 6,2% growth
Alongside WWF Zimbabwe, the project will also involve the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Department of Livestock Production and Research (LPDR), Shangani Holistic Ranch, Lupane State University (LSU), Binga community. Technically being supported by CIAT, Uruguay’s National Agriculture research Institute (INIA), and WRI, the project will feature 35 additional partners, including Global Pasture Watch, OpenGeoHub, several universities and research institutes as well as associations of livestock farmers in the targeted countries. It will engage with farmers and extension workers to refine and implement seven country-specific decision support tools based on the testing carried out on 115 on-farm trial sites.
The tool will help address inefficiencies in livestock grazing systems. In both tropical areas and subtropical and temperate zones, forage harvest levels are about 50% of their potential. At the same time, grazing or mixed systems account for an estimated 98% of methane from livestock digestion, with 78% coming from countries in the Global South.
“Grazing livestock systems are common worldwide but they are both highly variable and seasonally constrained,” said Santiago Rafael Fariña, senior agriculture programme officer at the Global Methane Hub.
“The Time2Graze project aims to empower farmers with real-time information about the standing biomass of pasture to sustainably increase milk and meat production while also bringing down methane emissions.”