To stop and mitigate the adverse effects derived from livestock activity, the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development of Antioquia, Colombia’s second most important department, implemented silvopastoral systems and the precision livestock model as the main projects in the protection of the environment.
With 4.0 technology, the Agriculture Secretariat of Antioquia works with cattlemen and dairy farmers to reduce the ecological footprint and increase economic profitability.
The implementation of silvopastoral systems favors in a planned way the interaction between trees, crops and livestock, facilitating biological interactions between them, which optimizes land use, conserves plant cover to reduce the climatic effects of economic activity and, in addition, increases productivity and animal welfare, generating more profitability and better meat quality.
For its part, precision livestock farming, as a production system, incorporates technology to collect and analyze information for the optimization of the production animal origin food. According to a recent study by Cornell University (United States), implementing technology in livestock processes allows 90% less soil to be used, 14.5% less water and a 63% reduction in the carbon footprint of this activity productive.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO, livestock farming is considered one of the largest sources of environmental pollution on the planet by generating 18% of the gases that increase the greenhouse effect, producing 27% of carbon dioxide, 44% methane and nitrous oxide at a level of 29%. According to specialists, putting a kilo of meat on our table requires the use of 15,000 liters of water and producing 1 liter of milk requires 1,000 liters of water
Reducing the environmental impact of agriculture as a way to address the climate emergency is a priority objective for the Antioquian department.
Towards this, Rodolfo Correa, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development of Antioquia, points out that: “The purpose of the departmental government is to take Antioquia’s agriculture one step forward into the future and put it at the national forefront in protecting the environment, improving the quality of life of the animals and showing the world that it is possible to produce oxygen with this new livestock farming ”.
This strategy is part of the plan “100 actions of the Government of Antioquia to face the climate emergency” with which, the departmental government seeks to mitigate the climate emergency and contribute regionally to the improvement of global environmental quality.
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