RCUK-CIAT Newton Fund - Towards climate-smart forage-based diets for Colombian livestock

该项目将调查哥伦比亚使用热带牧草和豆类喂养反刍牲畜的情况，通过帮助开发更高效的放牧牛饲料，提高生产力并减少畜牧业对环境的影响。哥伦比亚大约75%的畜牧生产者是小农（小农），他们通常属于人口中最贫穷的阶层。农业贡献了哥伦比亚国内生产总值的6%，但贡献了该国约25%的温室气体排放，其中47%来自土壤的一氧化二氮排放，48%来自肠道发酵的甲烷排放。反刍牲畜是小农的重要资源，为人类生产高营养的肉类和牛奶，但也造成了污染性温室气体的排放。哥伦比亚是《联合国气候变化框架公约》《巴黎协定》的签署国，因此有义务为减少本国温室气体排放作出贡献。2017年5月，哥伦比亚启动了国家气候变化适应计划，该项目的数据将有助于确保在国家和区域层面采取有效行动。哥伦比亚目前使用IPCC的默认排放因子来计算其国家农业温室气体清单，该项目将生成数据，用于开发针对具体国家的EFs，以便更准确地（第2级）报告。该项目将利用在英国和哥伦比亚开展的一系列实验室和实地研究产生信息，通过展示改良饲料作物和改良饲料饲料在牛肉生产中的潜在用途，直接使哥伦比亚养牛户受益。牧草是家畜最便宜的饲料来源，改良的牧草种类和品种提高了生产率。这将增加农民的经济回报，并将有助于提高农业系统的复原力——快速生长和育肥牛的牛肉生产系统将不太容易受到正在困扰该国部分地区的日益持续的干旱的影响。确定哥伦比亚特有的反刍动物饲料资源将使畜牧农民能够使用更有效的饲料，从而降低排放强度，提高农民的经济和身体健康。我们将从CIAT在其卡利总部和哥伦比亚不同地理区域的其他地点维护的地块中取样一系列热带牧草。IBERS将利用实验室分析对这些样品进行分析，以确定可能提高牛的生长速度并最大限度地减少甲烷排放的混合物。以这种方式确定的有希望的饮食组合将在CIAT种植，并提供给牛，以测量采食量、甲烷排放和排泄物中的氮输出。班戈大学的营养建模和相应的生命周期评估将利用收集到的数据对哥伦比亚改变牛日粮对下游环境影响的后果进行评估和估计。

This project will investigate the use of tropical grasses and legumes for feeding to ruminant livestock in Colombia, to improve productivity and reduce the environmental impact of livestock farming by helping to develop more efficient grazed cattle diets. Approximately 75% of livestock producers in Colombia are small family farmers (smallholders), who are generally within the poorest sector of the population. Agriculture contributes 6% of the GDP of Colombia, but contributes approximately 25% of the country's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 47% of these from nitrous oxide emissions from soils and 48% as methane from enteric fermentation. Ruminant livestock, which are a critical resource for smallholders, producing highly nutritious meat and milk for the human population, but also contribute to the emissions of polluting GHG. Colombia is a signatory to the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and therefore has a commitment to contribute towards the reduction of its GHG emissions. In May 2017 Colombia initiated its national climate change adaptation plan and data from this project will help ensure effective actions take place at national and regional scales. Colombia currently uses IPCC default emission factors for calculating its national agriculture GHG inventory, and this project will generate data for development of country-specific EFs for more accurate (Tier 2) reporting.This project will generate information, using a range of lab and field-based studies in the UK and Colombia, that will directly benefit Colombian cattle farmers by demonstrating the potential use of improved forage crops and improved forage-based diets for beef production. Forages are the cheapest source of feed for livestock, and improved forage species and varieties improve production rates. This will increase economic returns for the farmer, and will help to improve the resilience of the farming system - beef production systems that grow and finish cattle quickly will be less susceptible to the increasingly prolonged droughts that are afflicting parts of the country. Identification of Colombian-specific ruminant animal feed resources will enable more efficient diets to be used by livestock farmers, thereby reducing emissions intensities and increasing the farmers' economic and physical wellbeing.We will sample a range of tropical forages from plots maintained by CIAT at its headquarters in Cali, and at other locations in different geographical regions of Colombia. These samples will be analysed by IBERS using lab analyses to determine mixtures that potentially improve cattle growth rate and minimise methane emissions. Promising diet combinations determined this way will then be grown in at CIAT and offered to cattle to measure feed intake and emissions of methane and nitrogenous outputs in excreta. Nutritional modelling, and consequential life cycle assessment at Bangor University, will use collected data to upscale and estimate the consequences of changing cattle diets in Colombia on downstream environmental impacts.