Land Innovation Fund rides in ILPF’s 2024 Caravan
Two farms on the itinerary of technical visits are part of the SustentAgro project portfolio.
Credits: ILPF Network Association
From August 26 to 30, researchers, experts in agricultural chains, farmers, students and representatives of the private sector will take to the road for a first-hand look at the benefits of integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems in some of central-western Brazil’s well established agricultural regions. At the initiative of the ILPF Network Association and Embrapa, with the participation of member companies and outside partners, the 2024 seventh edition of the ILPF Caravan will cross Mato Grosso, with stops for technical visits, talks and lectures in the municipalities of Juara, Brasnorte, Campo Grande dos Parecis and Sinop. Of the four farms visited, two of them – Fazenda Atiaia and Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril – are active in SustentAgro, an ILPF Network Association project in partnership with the Land Innovation Fund to bring training and technology transfer in digital and low carbon agriculture to Brazil's three central-western states.
On Tuesday, August 27, the caravan will set out in the municipality of Juara, where it will visit Fazenda Atiaia. Since the 2021/2022 harvest, this farm has been converting degraded pastures into agricultural areas, growing rice, soybeans and corn. With its participation in SustentAgro, the farm is implementing crop-livestock integration and no-till production on 30 hectares of land. The event will feature preliminary results from the use of the integrated system and no-till farming. “The Caravan is an event organized by the ILPF Network Association and, in this edition, has the support of the SustentAgro project, financed by the Land Innovation Fund. It is an immersion in the field on the importance of productive sustainability, where the results of the work done by our projects, partners and committed producers are exposed”, explains the project coordinator, Nilo Sander.
On Wednesday morning, the participants will arrive in Brasnorte, where they will visit Fazenda São Roque, an ILPF unit with eucalyptus planted in double and triple rows for biomass analysis and grain drying. In the afternoon, in Campo Novo do Parecis, they will visit the city's Rural Union and Fazenda Gaúcha, which grows soybeans, cotton and corn, with integrated livestock farming.
The last stop on the technical visit will be another SustentAgro unit. On Friday, August 30, the caravan will arrive in Sinop, where Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril's Technological Reference Unit (URT) is located. On that occasion, experts from the ILPF Network and Embrapa researchers will discuss the future of the integration system and the benefits of its implementation in the central-northern region of Mato Grosso, and also visit the model farm. This unit is responsible for disseminating ILPF concepts to promote innovation and agricultural sustainability in one of the country's most productive grain-growing areas.
In Brazil, there are already 17.4 million hectares of land under crop-livestock-forestry integration and the goal is to double the use of the technique by 2030, according to data from the ILPF Network Association. The use of different agricultural, livestock and forestry systems with intercropping, succession or rotation, optimizes the use of land and the application of inputs, boosting yields and preserving natural resources. The technique ensures greater efficiency in the use of natural resources, more nutrients in the soil, maintenance of biodiversity and optimized production processes, among other benefits.
SustentAgro:
Credits: Fabiano Bastos
Working in partnership and collaboration with seven research and development centers, SustentAgro has selected eighteen Technological Dissemination Units (UDTs) and eight Technological Reference Units (URTs) on a total of 23 farms to implement ILPF systems and disseminate knowledge and technology on more than 24,000 hectares of pilot area. At the end of the project, a carbon protocol will be drawn up to comply with guidelines established by experts from Embrapa and voluntary market institutions, whose services are validated by an international certifier.
In April this year, the project launched the ILPF Digital application, developed by the Digital Agriculture Chamber of the ILPF Network Association and GeoABC+, an Embrapa Solos initiative, with support from the Land Innovation Fund. This tool allows professionals on farms adopting some form of ILPF systems to enter data and help optimize management of the systems. Data collected by the app will be made available, anonymously and with integrated results, on an ILPF Digital platform, which is still under development. The website will provide access to graphs, statistics and maps detailing the use of ILPF technology in Brazil.
According to Ashley Valle, “SustentAgro reinforces and reaffirms the importance of public-private alliances through technical and financial support to develop innovative solutions, disseminate knowledge and train professionals in sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.”