IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) will calculate the climate risk of rural properties in the Amazon and Cerrado to provide information on how the climate is affecting productivity in the regions. The action marks World Environment Day on June 5.
To take part, farmers must register using this form. The calculation is offered free of charge by IPAM. The first 500 applications will be accepted for the analysis.
The initiative is part of a research project called GALO (Global Assessment from Local Observations), developed by IPAM and the Woodwell Climate Research Center to understand the relationship between conservation and productivity in the field.
“Climate risk occurs when rural productivity falls due to conditions such as drought. The aim of this calculation is to identify the main factors that negatively affect productivity and the management that reverses the negative effects,” says Ludmila Rattis, a researcher at IPAM and the Woodwell Climate Research Center, coordinator of the project.
To do this, the researchers created a model that uses productivity data from the rural area to tell them how much climate risk the property has had in the past and what the projections are for this risk in the future.
More than 70 rural producers from Mato Grosso and Matopiba – the agricultural frontier made up of municipalities in Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia – have already received the results of the analysis of their properties.
Among the benefits are proper planning for future harvests, since producers also receive a productivity projection based on the climate models of the IPCC, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“From the moment the producer knows the risk that the climate poses to productivity, in a material and tangible way, he has more subsidies to invest in sustainable agricultural practices and minimize these impacts, as well as demanding action from his political representatives,” says Rattis.
One of the results that the research project has already shown is that restoring native vegetation increases rural productivity and prevents crop failures. In the case of soybeans, the locally restored area increases production by up to 10 bags, or 600 kilos per hectare.
