CATIE's support actions in the Belizean project on productivity and resilience to climate change in livestock systems are concluded.

• The project has been underway since 2018 and is currently awaiting new joint proposals to improve productivity and resilience in Belizean livestock farming.

September 20, 2021.By the end of September 2021, CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) will conclude the actions to support the project "Improving productivity and resilience to climate change in the livestock sector in Belize" which, since November 2018, has been developed by the Belize Livestock Producers Association (BLPA) with technical assistance from CATIE and funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The last learning session for producers was held at Mr. James Dawson's farm in CrookedTree, Belize, where 18 producers from the three districts where the project has been operating: Cayo, Belize and Orange Walk participated. This was the first time that the participants learned about this technology to deal with the lack of feed in critical periods and thus reduce the weight loss of their animals.

Thanks to this training process, several participants expressed their willingness to replicate the experience on their farms, as well as to share what they learned with other producers in the area.

"Before this event I thought it was a technology that required a large investment in a silo and machinery, but I realize that it is something I can do on my farm, as long as we small producers organize ourselves to buy and share the use of a mobile grinder," said Marvin Corea, a young producer from Arizona, Cayo district.

On September 9 of this year, CATIE's Technical Assistance team, formed by Jairo Cardona and Danilo Pezo, presented to the BLPA Board of Directors the report entitled "Good Practices to Increase Resilience in Livestock Farms in Belize: Some Lessons Learned". The activity was attended by the Director General of CATIE, Muhammad Ibrahim, who expressed his gratitude to the BLPA team for their support of the institution's team, as well as the trust placed in them to share the experiences of the Livestock and Environmental Management Group (GAMMA) on the different alternatives for rehabilitating degraded areas and sustainably intensifying livestock production using silvo-pastoral options.

"The innovations brought to us by the CATIE team are many and very valuable, all of them within the reach of the capacity and resources available to the cattle ranchers, so have no doubt that this effort of years will pay off. We appreciate the effort they made to continue supporting us despite the limitations associated with movement restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were always with the project team and the owners of the pilot farms, almost for a year through WhatsApp and in person again when the authorization was obtained from the authorities of the Ministry of Health for the Technical Assistant (Jairo Cardona) to enter the country by land", said Ramón Gálvez, President of the Board of Directors of the BLPA.

Finally, the BLPA Board of Directors hoped that the private sector and Belizean government agencies would work together with CATIE to prepare a new proposal to scale up the experiences tested in 10 pilot farms to a larger population, thus improving the productivity and resilience of Belizean livestock.

More information:

Dr. Danilo Pezo
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