RCUK-CIAT Newton Fund Advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems using multi-source remote sensing and social science approaches
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Geographical & Earth Sciences
Abstract
Agriculture and livestock production have historically been one of the major components of Colombian economic development and it is one of the top countries in the world in terms of greatest agricultural land expansion potential. Approximately 34% of the land area (~40m Ha) is used for livestock activities, with most pastures dedicated to extensive grazing systems. Agriculture is a critical source of employment in rural Colombia and is one of the sectors most affected by climate and climate change and where solutions to key challenges affecting the productivity and sustainability of pastures and the livestock sector are required. This collaborative project between University of Glasgow (UofG) University of Bristol (UofB) and CIAT will bring together cross-disciplinary perspectives and methodologies to develop RS-based approaches for forage monitoring and management at local and regional levels. The specific objectives are to: 1) develop co-designed work-flows for acquiring, processing and analysis of multi-dimensional multispectral and radar data for trial sites at CIAT headquarters; 2) investigate operational functions for extraction of grass growth and quality metrics from combined airborne/spaceborne/in situ datasets and develop a framework for a forage management decision support system; and 3) investigate methodologies for engagement with smallholders and determine attitudes to and potential barriers of incorporation of such technologies and their outputs into practice. The project will deliver new data to establish a baseline understanding of the capabilities of multi-source remote sensing and predictive analysis tools to provide reliable and consistent information on forage quantity and quality and smallholder capability and willingness to adopt such technologies. Outputs from the project will directly inform forage production management activities and will be communicated to stakeholders via a project website, an end-of-project workshop, and through promotion at further dissemination events run by CIAT.
Planned Impact
Overall, outputs from this project will lead to improved information, processes, and in time, decision support services capable of generating efficiencies in spending private money and creating potential employment in areas of forage-production management and remote sensing (RS)-driven data analytics. Broader impacts include reducing poverty and sustaining farmer livelihoods in rural communities most affected by crop damage and land degradation through the incorporation of environmental and RS-driven data analytics in an effective decision support system. It will also facilitate the decision making for important national endeavours related with mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG) committed at the COP in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). One vehicle to achieve the GHG emission reductions is the National Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) of the cattle sector and its Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) system where the big gaps are still to be solved in terms of capturing information in a rapid manner in remote areas. CIAT researchers are working in these areas together with national partners and see multi-source remote sensing as an excellent technology to reach Colombian goals in this matter. Combining UofG expertise in radar and multispectral remote sensing and UofB expertise in social sciences with CIAT`s knowledge of local forage production systems in Colombia will lead to new innovations in combined aerial and satellite-based smart agriculture applications and progress ease of access to the best possible and timely information for targeted decision making. The collaboration will enhance the independent knowledge, scientific and technical expertise of not only UofG, UofB and CIAT colleagues, but the wider scientific, political and rural communities through smallholder engagement and an end-of-project workshop in March 2019. The project will directly contribute to advancing on-going research of the CIAT phenotyping team and the enhancement of the Phenomics Platform, facilitating the evaluation and diagnosis processes of forages with the overall objective of contributing to eco-efficient agriculture.
Organisations
Description | This multidisciplinary project aimed at improving forage-based livestock production systems in Colombia. There were two components to the project 1) the advancement of technologies in agriculture: improved forages information through predictive analysis tools driven by multi-source remote and in-situ sensing observations to support and inform smallholder farmers in rural communities affected by crop damage and land degradation, and 2) a social science approach, framed as preoccupied with issues of current farmer practices and collaborative experiences - the role of indigenous knowledge; agency, collaborative learning and skills, as well as questions of farming process and adaptive practices. The project used different satellite, aerial and in situ observations to develop predictive biomass models for three different types of tropical forages. The project also found that, as a result of local climate events and institutional actions, interviewed smallholder farmers have organised themselves and created cooperatives as instances of collaboration and learning. The collaborative management facilitates their access to contextual conversion factors that help them learn about new technologies, improve planning, acknowledge unexpected climate conditions, adopt sustainable farming practices, learn how to convert agricultural resources/means into farming functionings and, as a result, enhance their adaptive capacities and 'climate change capabilities' at an individual and collective level. |
Exploitation Route | The outcomes from this project are being further developed through the CoForLife project to include an increased number of study sites across Colombia, representing differences in climate and livestock production systems and also through working with a larger number of partners and various Colombian stakeholders. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Environment |
Description | Erasmus+ Geonatura training course for students from Scotland, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | "Bringing young people back into agriculture: developing a South-South partnership to collaboratively address generational renewal" |
Amount | £8,260 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2022 |
End | 07/2023 |
Description | Advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems in Colombia (CoForLife) |
Amount | £819,681 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/S01893X/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | RCUK-CIAT Newton Fund Advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems using multi-source remote sensing and social science approaches |
Amount | £109,191 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/R022879/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 04/2019 |
Description | Towards resilient and sustainable tropical livestock production systems in Colombia |
Amount | £22,795 (GBP) |
Organisation | Government of Scotland |
Department | Scottish Funding Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2018 |
End | 06/2019 |
Description | UKRI ODA Allocation block award |
Amount | £49,376 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X527749/1 |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2022 |
End | 03/2023 |
Title | Remote sensing derived forage biomass prediction |
Description | Radar and multispectral derived forage biomass outputs are being developed for the Palmira and Patía study areas for dates between June 2018 and December 2018, corresponding to detailed field survey dates. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Products have not been publicly released and their benefits will be evaluated during the second stage of the project when they will be distributed to the smallholders and local stakeholders. |
Description | Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Presentation on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applications for agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), hosted by Prof Maofang Gao, Deputy Director of Agricultural Remote Sensing Department, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Beijing, China on 30th Oct 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | CoForLife stakeholder engagement meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | A stakeholder engagement workshop was held at the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperacion para la Agricultura, Bogota, Colombia, to present results from previous Newton Fund projects with CIAT and to inform them of plans for future work. Participants, approximately 20 people, included representatives from the Colombian Round Table of cattle producers, Agrosavia, the Colombian Federation of Cattle Producers, and the British Embassy in Bogota. Participants expressed interest in being involved in the field work and in helping to disseminate results to their members. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Comparative and International Education Society Conference Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An oral presentation by Dr Marcela Ramos on Exploring and understanding the development of climate change capabilities' among Colombian smallholders farmers exposed to new technologies in agriculture was delivered at the Comparative and International Education Society 63rd Annual Conference (Conference Topic: Education for Sustainability) in San Francisco, California, April 14 - 18, 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Conference Presentation at the Human Development and Capability Association |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | In this presentation at an international conference, I have the opportunity to share research findings, reflect on critical questions, and research insights with academics, PG and UG students, and the general public. Among the key topics discussed, food systems, sustainability, climate change and technology adoption were addressed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Dairy workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Invited oral presentation at 'Skimming the cream: Developing potential to build dairy farmers' resilience in Malawi and Scotland" on 19th June 2019 at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow and organised by the National Centre for Resilience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Episode 3 - AboutSUS podcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I have co-produced and edited a podcast addressing the complex relationship between sustainability, agriculture and farming. One academic in Glasgow and one farmer in Malawi are interviewed to reflect on the challenges imposed by traditional/intensive agriculture practices and explain why developing a sustainable relationship with the environment is crucial. The podcast is reproduced and disseminated through various channels, including a University and ONG website, plus main podcast channels, to be used as an academic tool by UG and PG students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://sustainablefuturesglobal.org/resources/aboutsus-podcast/ |
Description | European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Symposium presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation at the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Symposium: Barrett, B. et al. Remote Sensing of Tropical Forage Quantity and Quality - Assessment of Feature Selection Approaches, Algorithms and Metalearners, Living Planet Symposium 2022, Bonn, Germany, 23-27 May 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://lps22.eu/ |
Description | Focus group for female-only participants |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | A focus group was held with female-only participants (10 women, the vast majority of them first-time participants) from an organisation called FUNAMUAFRO. Key outcomes of this focus group were to create sub-groups of female-only farmers to develop productivity goals and tasks to fulfil individual and group needs. In addition, based on previous work presented to the group, FUNAMAUFRO members decided to change some of their farming practices, particularly those related to cattle feeding and selling, as they have realised this is not efficient from an economic perspective. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Focus group workshop with mixed gender smallholder farmers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | A focus group was conducted with a mixed group of smallholders (6 women and two men) to share preliminary findings from earlier to include participants' reflections and insights. Feedback was that climate change is shaping their daily farming activities, and the acknowledged the value of new technologies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Human Development & Capability Association (HDCA) conference presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | The paper titled "Seeing climate change as an opportunity: the case of Afro-descendant Colombian smallholders exposed to new technologies in agriculture" was presented on July the 2nd, in Session 2 "Sustainable human development in postcolonial contexts: trajectories of adaptation to global changes in the Americas". The talk encouraged attendees to get in contact with the speaker (PDRA Marcela Ramos) to find out more about the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://whova.com/embedded/speaker/hdcac_202006/10909765/ |
Description | Newsletter (online) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Newsletter reporting the activities of University of Glasgow, University of Bristol and CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) fieldwork in Palmira and Patía, Colombia from September/October 2018. Title: Promoting interdisciplinary approaches in advancing sustainable livestock production systems, Available at https://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/promoting-interdisciplinary-approaches-in-advancing-sustainable-livestock-production-systems/ and https://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/forage-technologies-to-reduce-the-environmental-impact-of-colombian-livestock-production/. The fieldwork carried out at five smallholder farms in Patía was in collaboration with male and female smallholders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://blog.ciat.cgiar.org/forage-technologies-to-reduce-the-environmental-impact-of-colombian-live... |
Description | Project blog |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog describing project activities, bringing together cross-disciplinary perspectives and methods to develop approaches for forage monitoring and biomass prediction at local and regional levels using airborne and satellite multispectral and radar remote sensing. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://colombiagrassland.wordpress.com/ |
Description | Smallholders workshop (Colombia) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop with smallholder farmers at Patía was held to allow participants to share expertise and techniques, and consider how their current methods may be augmented with the use of timely information derived from remote sensing data sources. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | University visit (Nankai, China) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Oral presentation on advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems using multi-source remote sensing delivered at an international Environmental Science Workshop - Nankai University, 10th - 12th May 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Workshop in the University of Los Andes, Colombia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Researchers and students from the University of Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) organise a workshop where we share research findings, plans and potential new avenues for research in three key areas: rural women's opportunities, food systems and academic-communities collaborative research activities. Increasing interest in developing clear connections between the research agenda and public policy on women's rural organisation and land access was identified as a critical outcome. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Workshop on Sustainable Livestock Systems for the Andes |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop with participants from Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador was held to discuss ways of developing more sustainable livestock systems in the Andean regions of South America, in particular using novel varieties of forages grasses - both tropical and temperate. Outputs included the identification of areas for development which would be most beneficial economically and environmentally for local and regional agricultural. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |