Degraded pastures in Brazil: improving livestock production and forest restoration

Abstract

Degraded pasture is a major liability in Brazilian agriculture, but restoration and recovery efforts could turn this area into a new frontier to both agricultural yield expansion and forest restoration. Currently, rural properties with larger degraded pasture areas are associated with higher levels of technical inefficiency in Brazil. The recovery of 12 million ha of degraded pastures could generate an additional production of 17.7 million bovines while reducing the need for new agricultural land. Regional identification of degraded pastures would facilitate the targeting of agricultural extension and advisory services and rural credit efforts aimed at fostering pasture recovery. Since only 1% of Brazilian municipalities contain 25% of degraded pastures, focusing pasture recovery efforts on this small group of municipalities could generate considerable benefits. More efficient allocation of degraded and native pastures for meat production and forest restoration could provide land enough to fully comply with its Forest Code requirements, while adding 9 million heads to the cattle inventory. Degraded pasture recovery and restoration is a win–win strategy that could boost livestock husbandry and avoid deforestation in Brazil and has to be the priority strategy of agribusiness sector.

Assessing the influence of cereal-legume mixtures on the productivity of degraded pastures in the Kostanay region of northern Kazakhstan

“…Research and observations were carried out following generally accepted methods and state standards (GOSTs). These methods were the methodology of field experiment (Dospekhov, 1985) and methodological guidelines for conducting field experiments with forage crops (All-Russian Williams Fodder Research Institute) (Podgot et al, 1983). According to these methods, standing density accounting was performed twice: after germination, before harvesting on designated areas in the 1 st and 3 rd replicates.…”

BLOEM: A spatially explicit model of bioenergy and carbon capture and storage, applied to Brazil

“…Brazil is a major food producer and the location of some of the world's most pristine forests and natural lands, which have greatly suffered from large‐scale deforestation in recent decades (Rajão et al, 2020; Rochedo et al, 2018). Additionally, the country has large low‐productivity pasture areas with low stocking rates, which, if better managed, could improve land availability even for uses beyond pasture only (Bragança et al, 2022; Feltran‐Barbieri & Féres, 2021; Strassburg et al, 2014). In this context, a prominent expansion of bioenergy needs to be carefully considered in the light of agricultural and land‐use policies to prevent negative impacts on food production, biodiversity and water availability.…”

Biochar and legumes improve pastures in Brazil: environmental and socioeconomic analysis of three forage grasses in a field experiment

“…Degraded and low-productivity pasturelands prevail globally: 80% of agricultural land is dedicated to feed and livestock production but provides less than 20% of the world's food calories (UNCCD, 2022). Degradation of pastures, both planted and natural grasslands drives the decline of their productivity due to poor herd, vegetation or soil management (Feltran-Barbieri and Féres, 2021). Global growth in meat consumption is projected to increase by 14% by 2030 compared to the 2018-2020 base-period average (OECD / FAO, 2021) and along with this increase, the pressure on new production areas is likely to be exacerbated (OECD / FAO, 2015).…”

“…The country is projected to continue its export growth trajectory over the next decade, reaching 2.9 million metric tons, or 23 percent of total global beef exports by 2028 (USDA, 2019). However, despite its socio-economic importance, the domestic livestock sector, largely based on grass grazing systems, performs well below its potential (Feltran-Barbieri and Féres, 2021;Strassburg et al, 2014).…”