Extensionists in Dominican Republic train in climate-smart livestock farming

• Announcement of planting of 1,000 trees as a plan to mitigate the carbon footprint of the education program during its stay in Costa Rica

November 14, 2022. As part of the project Promoting Climate-Smart Livestock Management in the Dominican Republic (GANACLIMA-DR), experts from the Livestock and Environmental Management Unit of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) taught the course Extension System, Technology Transfer and Best Practices for Climate-Smart Livestock Management to technicians of the MEGALECHE Program of the General Directorate of Livestock (DIGEGA, its Spanish acronym).

"Through the course we sought to strengthen their capacities to promote the adoption of good practices that contribute to the adaptation of livestock systems to climate change, while reducing emissions from cattle farming," explained Felipe Peguero, CATIE expert.

The course was held in two modules, from September 26-30 and October 31-November 4. Topics covered included the establishment of silvo-pastoral systems; the management and formulation of low-sustainable feed diets; forage conservation; manure management and water harvesting; genetic improvement of animals for the tropics; and financial evaluation of climate interventions on livestock farms.

Francia Torres, an extension technician with the MEGALECHE program, said that climate-smart livestock farming is extremely important in the face of climate change. "In this workshop we learned that water harvesting can be a strategy to face drought and continue to promote livestock farming. These trainings allow us to think of new strategies for livestock development, in line with our reality and more profitable for livestock producers," said Torres.

The GANACLIMA-RD project is an initiative implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN, its Spanish acronym) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MA, its Spanish acronym), with the participation of the National Council for the Regulation and Promotion of the Dairy Industry (CONALECHE, its Spanish acronym) and DIGEGA; with technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and co-financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).