17/12/2009 - Secretariat
for Social Communication of the Presidency
of Brazil - The Brazilian Agricultural Research
Enterprise (Embrapa)
counts on the technique of recovery of pastures
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the
country. A recently published study points
out that the recovery of these areas and
the integration of crops with livestock
are two available technologies that contribute
to solve the problem of emissions reduction
and, together, they could represent around
12% of the voluntary commitment made by
the Brazilian Government of reducing up
to 38.9% of its greenhouse gas emissions
by 2020.
According to the institution's
researcher, Geraldo Martha, the contribution
of these actions would be even greater in
practice. "As the clearing of new areas
for farming is one of the causes for deforestation
in the Amazon and in the Cerrado Biome,
the recovery of low-productivity cattle
raising areas currently in use will be a
fundamental factor to create new spaces
for the expansion of food, fibers and biofuels
production without the necessity of more
deforestation", he explained.
Numbers and results
According to a research
carried out by Embrapa, when a low-productivity
pasture with a capacity rate of 0.4 head
per hectare begins to accommodate five animals
in the same area unit, each hectare with
this new capacity that is recovered for
crop-livestock integration releases another
eight units for other uses. Besides contributing
to reduce deforestation, the productivity
increase by itself translates into benefits
for the environment. According to the researcher,
the large amount of roots in the soil contributes
to an increase in organic matter, which
also increments carbon capture from the
atmosphere and improves water and nutrient
use effectiveness in the system.
Methane
Another major problem
of livestock related to greenhouse effect
are the methane emissions deriving from
the digestion processes of bovine cattle,
which is also minimized because of the improved
quality of the plant coverage. Studies by
Embrapa point out that the emission of this
gas by the cattle could drop by half when
they are raised in systems with pastures
of high availability and nutritive value,
such as well-managed crop-livestock integration
systems. The good news is that the animal
performance increase in pastures, besides
reducing the negative environmental impact
of cattle-raising, generally increases the
entrepreneurship's profits.
According to the Embrapa
researcher, Lourival Vilela, who coordinates
Embrapa's research studies on crop-livestock
integration systems, at least half of Brazilian
pastures are already in degradation at some
degree. Under such conditions, the soil
has generally little fertility and thus
smaller productivity, which raises production
costs, especially in small properties.
This low-productivity
condition of pastures results in loss of
organic matter, erosion and thickening of
the soil. On the other hand, crop-livestock
integration, besides benefiting the environment,
allow greater efficiency in the use of fertilizers,
reduction of invasive plants and productivity
gains both in the crops and in the cattle-raising
activity.
Based on information from Embrapa
