International partnership fosters a platform to monitor ICLF systems

The SustentAgro Program launches its app to compile data from Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forestry (ICLF) systems on a single digital platform

Brazil has 17.4 million hectares under Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest systems and plans to double this area by 2030, according to the ICLF Network Association. The Digital Agriculture Chamber, part of the Association, and GeoABC+, an Embrapa Soils initiative in the SustentAgro program supported by the Land Innovation Fund, have developed an application to map and monitor one of the country's leading sustainable agriculture systems. The Digital ICLF was launched on April 11 at the headquarters of the Cocamar Agribusiness Cooperative in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, with a roundtable discussion by Embrapa researchers and representatives from three state governments in central-western Brazil.

With the Digital ICLF app, farm professionals using any ICLF approach can enter data to optimize the system’s management. Information collected by the app will be made available, anonymously and with integrated results, on a Digital ICLF web platform, which is still under development. The page will provide access to graphs, statistics and maps detailing the use of ICLF technology in Brazil.

The application will help train learning algorithms used by GeoABC+, a research, development, and innovation (RD&I) initiative managed by researchers at Embrapa Soils and the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), to develop technical solutions that will monitor ICLF systems with satellite images, artificial intelligence, and high-performance cloud computing, in order to support public policies for this sector.

The Digital ICLF platform will monitor the expansion of integrated agriculture systems throughout Brazil and analyze trends in the most widely used ICLF systems in each region. Consolidated data will help improve and/or design public policies for low-carbon agriculture. Ivan Bergier, a researcher at Embrapa Digital Agriculture, who coordinates the ICLF Network's Digital Agriculture Chamber and participates in the SustentAgro project, has this to say: "The ICLF Digital Platform is designed to map existing animal and plant integration systems in Brazil, as well as to help the ABC+ program stimulate the spread of these sustainable farming systems over larger areas of degraded pastures, mitigating impacts on biodiversity and on the environmental services of forest remnants in Brazilian biomes."

Sustentagro:

Launching the ICLF app is part of SustentAgro's plans for innovative solutions. The result of a partnership between the ICLF Network Association and the Land Innovation Fund, it will promote greater use of Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forestry systems in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás through training and technology transfer in digital and low-carbon agriculture. It will also deliver an integrated platform with monitoring and verification data from soy production chains, to consolidate sustainability parameters and requirements.

"The SustentAgro program brings a major revolution to generate income and optimize agricultural activities, especially for small and medium-sized farms. We see on-farm transformations in the lives of people and families. Farmers have already realized that they can improve production and land management techniques, to become increasingly sustainable and contribute directly to controlling climate change," says Nilo Sander, the program's manager.

By partnering and collaborating with seven research institutions, SustentAgro has now selected eighteen Technology Dissemination Units on 21 farms to share know-how, and nine Technological Reference Units – seven research institutions and two more farms – for a total of 23 farms covering more than 24,000 hectares. A soil carbon protocol has been drawn up that meets guidelines issued by Embrapa experts and voluntary market institutions.

"SustentAgro underscores and reiterates the importance of public-private alliances with technical and financial support to produce innovative solutions, spread knowledge and train professionals in sustainable, climate-smart agriculture," says Ashley Valle.

EVENT:

Launch of the Digital ICLF App

Roundtable: Crop-Livestock Integration as a Sustainable Alternative

Date: April 11, 2024, at 7pm

Venue: Cocamar Agribusiness Cooperative, Campo Grande

Speakers:

Rodrigo Amorim Barbosa, researcher at Embrapa Beef Cattle; 

Mariana de Aragão Pereira, researcher at Embrapa Beef Cattle;

Edson Luis Bolfe, researcher at Embrapa Digital Agriculture;

Margareth Simões, researcher at Embrapa Soils.