The GANASUR team during a recent Workshop
The GANASUR project – “Developing Mitigation Strategies for the Livestock Sector Through a Collaborative Approach Across the Southern Cone”– is wrapping up in June, but it has positioned the region as a leader in low-emissions livestock approaches in South America.
Funded through the New Zealand Government’s Climate Smart Agriculture Initiative, as part of its contribution to the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), and coordinated by PROCISUR, GANASUR brought together leading scientific institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This regional collaboration has generated practical evidence that can be used directly by policymakers.
From Fragmented Data to a Shared Evidence Base
A core achievement of GANASUR is the development of harmonised, region-wide “Business-As-Usual” baselines across diverse beef production systems in the Southern Cone. By using consistent methods and verifying typical pastural beef systems, the project created a shared evidence base to enable:
- robust comparison of mitigation strategies across countries,
- greater confidence in regional and national emissions estimates, and
- consistency with international reporting and GRA priorities.
This shared baseline is a critical step toward mitigation actions that can be compared and scaled up. It also allowed the creation of mitigation scenarios, which are useful because they show both the full potential and the realistic pathway for action:
- Maximum Theoretical Scenario – representing the highest potential mitigation achievable under full implementation of all measures. This helps set ambition and understand the total opportunity.
- Plausible Scenario – reviewed and agreed by stakeholders within each participating country. This makes it far more relevant for policy design and implementation.
Identifying What Works: Mitigation with Measurable Impact
GANASUR has moved beyond theory to quantify what mitigation options actually deliver across productivity, emissions, and profitability. The project is assessing practical interventions, including:
- improved reproductive efficiency,
- optimised grazing and forage systems, with a particular focus on enhancing forage quality (digestibility and nitrogen content) and availability,
- strategic supplementation, and
- enhanced animal health management.
Anti-methanogenic feed or additives impacts are evaluated on methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions up to the farm-gate to ensure that mitigation pathways are grounded in real farm performance.
Linking Science and Policy: The Economics of Mitigation
A key innovation is the development of Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACCs) tailored to Southern Cone systems. For each mitigation practice in livestock systems (e.g. better grazing, improved reproduction, feed additives), a MACC answers two key questions:
- How much can this reduce emissions? (the abatement potential)
- What does it cost to achieve that reduction? (the cost per unit of emissions reduced)
These options are then plotted so you can compare them side by side. These provide policymakers with clear insights into the:
- cost-effectiveness of mitigation options,
- trade-offs between emissions reduction and farm profitability, and
- opportunities for low-cost, high-impact interventions.
This economic lens is essential for designing credible, implementable mitigation policies and investment strategies.
Why GANASUR Matters for the scientific Community
GANASUR delivers exactly what is needed to accelerate progress aligned with the goals of the GRA:
- Comparable, regionally harmonised data frameworks
- Evidence on scalable mitigation practices
- Integration of productivity, resilience, and emissions outcomes
- Direct relevance for policy and investment decisions
As countries seek to balance food production, economic growth, and emissions reduction, GANASUR provides a replicable model for evidence-based, regionally coordinated climate action in livestock systems.
Its insights will inform policy development, mitigation strategies, and international collaboration, helping ensure that livestock systems in the Southern Cone and beyond are productive, resilient, and aligned with global climate ambitions.
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