NZ-FONTAGRO Joint Research Projects

The Silvopasture project is co-funded by New Zealand, FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank, and national research agencies to promote silvopasture across Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic. Silvopasture combines trees, pastures, and livestock to improve soil health, store carbon, deliver higher and more stable yields, and reduce environmental impacts.

The project supports farmers to adopt these climate-smart livestock practices that cut greenhouse gas emissions. Thousands of farmers and researchers will benefit directly, with many more reached indirectly across Latin America, creating jobs, boosting incomes, and advancing sustainable agriculture in the region.

The total direct beneficiaries are estimated to be 2,230 producers, 247 researchers, 37 Research Institutes/Experimental Stations, 18 Universities. FONTAGRO estimate indirect and potential benefit to 9,000 people in Argentina, 4,000 in Chile, 12,000 in Brazil, 6,000 in Uruguay and 2,000 in the Dominican Republic.

The project focuses on the sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in the “Dry Corridor” of Central America by incorporating sorghum genotypes and other forage cereals adapted to each environment to increase the productivity, sustainability, and resilience of the region's production systems.

 The outcomes upskill and enable farmers to produce more resilient crops better suited to their local environment.

 The project is co-funded in partnership with FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank, and national research agencies.

This project is improving farmer decision making support with the aim to maximise the harvest of forage produced on farms, thus contributing to improving the self-sufficiency and the economic and environmental sustainability of pastoral systems.

The outcomes lead to lower costs, greater resilience to climate variability, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation.

The project is co-funded in partnership with FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank, and national research agencies.

A pasture harvest increase of at least 30% is anticipated in participating farms, improving productivity efficiency and reducing reliance on external inputs.

The project evaluates the effectiveness of a range of conservation agriculture practices in the potato-pasture production systems of the Andean region in Peru and Ecuador, and their impact on greenhouse gases.

The outcomes are important for taking this high-potential production system from a current low productivity and high input status, to become higher productivity and lower emissions.

The project is co-funded in partnership with FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank, and national research agencies.

 Around 200 farming families in the Andean Region of Ecuador and Peru are involved in the potato-pasture production systems; and 20 professionals, including teachers, technicians, and researchers will directly benefit from this project. Additionally, at least 120 students from agricultural faculties, along with 60 professionals, including teachers, technicians, and researchers from other institutions, will also indirectly participate.

This project builds capacity quantify the impact of greenhouse emissions from locally marketed nitrogen sources and evaluates the doses of fertilisers commonly used by farmers. It also develops mitigation strategies to reduce emissions while maintaining yields.

The outcomes are important for supporting improvements to productivity while decreasing emissions and lost value through incorrectly used fertiliser.

The work is funded in partnership with FONTAGRO, the Inter-American Development Bank, and national research agencies.

Direct beneficiaries will be agricultural producers, technicians, researchers and students from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Dominican Republic and Panama through the transfer of the evaluated technologies of the project. Additionally national decision makers can use the outputs to strengthen national emissions reporting and monitoring capabilities.