Ecuadorian Amazonian ranchers will continue strengthening their capacities in sustainable livestock farming

• Capacity building is carried out through the methodology of field schools, so that trained technicians and community promoters promote the sustainable intensification of livestock farming in the area.

August 16, 2022. As part of the actions of ProAmazonía, a program of the National Government of Ecuador and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the help of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) are jointly developing a training process in the Ecuadorian Amazon on issues related to sustainable livestock.

The objective is for CATIE to train technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) on the methodology of Field Schools (ECA, its Spanish acronym), as well as in four modules: nutritional blocks, pasture establishment, manure management and sanitation. So that they can replicate the knowledge acquired with the producers of the 101 ECAs that were formed in cycle 1 (2021) of ProAmazon; an initiative implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE, its Spanish acronym) and MAG, with support from UNDP.

CATIE experts such as Francisco Casasola, Raúl Villeda, José Salvador and Rodolfo Ávila have provided on-site and virtual training to more than 30 technicians.

It is expected that by December 2022, 1,800 livestock producers (who make up the ECAs) will have received the four new modules through MAG technicians, with the support of CATIE.

In total, the producer families will receive 10 learning modules that will enable them to intensify production on their livestock farms in a sustainable manner.

The PROAmazonía project seeks to link national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from deforestation with Ecuador's priority agendas and the policies of the productive sectors, in order to reduce the causes and agents of deforestation and promote sustainable and integrated management of natural resources, with a landscape approach, within the framework of Ecuador's REDD+ Action Plan "Forests for Good Living" 2016-2025.