Tradeoffs in the quest for climate smart agricultural intensification in Mato Grosso, Brazil
Tradeoffs in the quest for climate smart agricultural intensification in Mato Grosso, Brazil
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DOI：
10.1088/1748-9326/aac4d1
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发表时间：
2018-06-01
影响因子：
6.7
通讯作者：
Reis, Julio C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gil, Juliana D. B.;Garrett, Rachael D.;Reis, Julio C.
生产力低下的养牛业与农村贫困、森林砍伐和温室气体 (GHG) 排放有关，仍然是巴西最大的可持续发展挑战之一，并在全世界产生影响。人们几乎普遍呼吁加强粗放的肉牛生产系统，以腾出土地用于农作物生产和自然，并满足巴西为减少全球气候变化做出的国家自主贡献。然而，巴西旨在集约化畜牧系统的不同干预措施可能涉及大量的社会和环境权衡。在这里，我们使用针对巴西农业前沿州马托格罗索州（世界上最大的大豆和肉牛生产区之一）校准的整个农场模型来研究这些权衡。具体来说，我们比较了不同气候情景下典型的粗放连续放牧牛系统相对于专门的大豆生产系统和两种改进的牛管理策略（轮牧和综合豆牛）的成本和效益。我们发现这些系统在温室气体和氮排放、气候适应力以及水和能源使用方面存在明显的权衡。相对于连续放牧或轮流放牧的牛系统，大豆-牛一体化系统显示出更高的粮食产量和更低的每单位人类可消化蛋白质的温室气体排放，以及对气候变化的抵御能力增强（无论是在生产力还是财务回报方面）。在严重的气候变化下，所有系统都遭受了生产力和盈利能力损失，凸显了该地区气候智能型农业发展战略的必要性。通过强调改善养牛系统性能的经济可行性，并量化每个选项的权衡，我们的结果有助于指导农业和气候政策。
Low productivity cattle ranching, with its linkages to rural poverty, deforestation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, remains one of the largest sustainability challenges in Brazil and has impacts worldwide. There is a nearly universal call to intensify extensive beef cattle production systems to spare land for crop production and nature and to meet Brazil's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to reducing global climate change. However, different interventions aimed at the intensification of livestock systems in Brazil may involve substantial social and environmental tradeoffs. Here we examine these tradeoffs using a whole-farm model calibrated for the Brazilian agricultural frontier state ofMato Grosso, one of the largest soybean and beef cattle production regions in the world. Specifically, we compare the costs and benefits of a typical extensive, continuously grazed cattle system relative to a specialized soybean production system and two improved cattle management strategies (rotational grazing and integrated soybean-cattle) under different climate scenarios. We found clear tradeoffs in GHG and nitrogen emissions, climate resilience, and water and energy use across these systems. Relative to continuously grazed or rotationally grazed cattle systems, the integreated soybean-cattle system showed higher food production and lower GHG emissions per unit of human digestible protein, as well as increased resilience under climate change (both in terms of productivity and financial returns). All systems suffered productivity and profitability losses under severe climate change, highlighting the need for climate smart agricultural development strategies in the region. By underscoring the economic feasibility of improving the performance of cattle systems, and by quantifying the tradeoffs of each option, our results are useful for directing agricultural and climate policy.