ABC+ Plan aims to reduce carbon emissions by more than 1 billion tons

Reducing equivalent carbon emissions by 1,1 billion tons in the agricultural sector is the goal defined by the Sector Plan for Adaptation and Low Carbon Emissions in Agriculture, called ABC+, for the period 2020 – 2030. The value is seven times greater than the plan defined in its first stage last decade. In terms of area, ABC+ aims to reach 72,68 million hectares with sustainable production technologies (a little more than twice the size of the United Kingdom); expand the treatment of 208,4 million meters³ of animal waste and slaughter 5 million heads of cattle in intensive finishing. 

“We have one of the most ambitious public agricultural policies in the world, which sets bold goals to improve the sustainability of Brazilian production over the next decade and keep agriculture at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change,” said the Minister of Agriculture , Livestock and Supply (Mapa), Tereza Cristina, at the launch of the new goals.  

Public policy is unique in the world in its scope, scope and reach. Based on scientific evidence, ABC+'s operations were expanded into ambitious goals for the next 10 years. After all, Brazilian agriculture has proven to be able to help combat global warming. 

“Brazilian agriculture is part of the solution. Made with technological bases and sustainable systems, it can be decarbonizing. This is the future. And, therefore, the plan is called more (+)”, highlights the director of the Department of Sustainable Production and Irrigation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mariane Crespolini. 

The ABC+ plan is the second stage of the ABC Plan, which was carried out between 2010 and 2020 and demonstrated results beyond expectations, mitigating around 170 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in an area of ​​52 million hectares, exceeded by 46,5 .XNUMX% in relation to the established target. It is worth noting that the values ​​established as targets for this decade are additional to those already achieved by ABC, which must be maintained.   

To evolve in conserving the environment while producing, ABC + not only increased the goals to be achieved for the mitigation of greenhouse gases, but also improved the understanding that we must also work with the resilience of natural resources. After all, the impacts of climate change are already present and it is necessary to present scientifically based solutions for this new scenario, as the agricultural sector is the most vulnerable to these changes as it is an open-air industry. 

To achieve this, the focus is an integrated approach to the landscape of productive areas, which consists of looking at the property not only as a food producer, but taking into account its entire surrounding landscape in a systemic way with compliance with the Forest Code; soil health; the conservation of water and all biodiversity. Thus, the integrated approach also enables the economic valuation of environmental services generated by ecosystems during agricultural production and also lends itself to understanding the rural environment, especially in relation to territorial planning. 

This is what the coordinator of Climate Change, Planted Forests and Conservationist Agriculture at Mapa, Fabiana Villa Alves, explains. “All the technologies proposed in the ABC+ Plan meet the triple bottom line of sustainability in their environmental, social and economic factors. Therefore, there is an incentive for greater productivity with a land-saving effect”, she declares, reinforcing the concept that it is not necessary to advance in areas to produce more and better.  

ABC+ will be presented by Brazil during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26). "We will demonstrate the full potential of Brazilian agriculture as part of the solution and offer our experience to countries with similar realities, with a call for collaboration from industrialized countries through international cooperation", said Tereza Cristina. 

Technologies for sustainable production 

Using the concept of integrated landscapes, it is possible to converge, for example, so that cattle farming also contributes to mitigation. By supplementing the cattle's diet with feed, it is also possible for them to reach the age and weight for slaughter in advance, which further reduces the amount of gases that the animals would emit if they had to reach such measurements just through grazing. This also helps to save forage, reinvigorating the pasture, which begins to capture and fix carbon in the soil. 

This technology, called intensive finishing, seeks to reach 5 million cattle, using the confinement or semi-confinement technique, characteristic of tropical agriculture. Advances in bovine nutrition, for example, also make it possible to add ingredients to cattle feed that influence the bovine's enteric fermentation, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions. 

With the use of irrigation in national agriculture, fertigation and the use of animal waste are enhanced. In summary, maintaining soil moisture increases carbon stock, as soils rich in organic matter retain more nutrients, increasing productivity, while sequestering and storing carbon. The proposed application of this technology is in an area of ​​3 million hectares. 

Both intensive termination and irrigation are technologies that were incorporated into ABC+, which also includes a review of the other six already implemented in the first phase of the Plan. 

The possibility of using different practices to recover or renew a pasture with some degree of degradation, ABC+ expands the scope to 30 million hectares with the productive capacity of degraded pastures. Practices for recovering degraded pastures seek to increase the production of plant biomass from the forages present, which then provides gains in animal production through rational management of the pasture formed.  

Another technology available at ABC+ is the planting of forests in an expansion of 4 million hectares to support the recovery of environmental areas and the commercial production of wood, fibers, food, bioenergy and non-timber forest products (latex, tannins, resins and bioproducts). ). The planted forest market plays an important economic and, mainly, environmental role, reducing pressure on native forests. According to the Brazilian Tree Industry, for every 1 hectare of planted forest, approximately 0,7 hectares of natural forests are conserved, as they function as carbon sinks through the increase in biomass.

Vegetables were added to the direct planting system, in a bid to strengthen family farming. In conjunction with the direct planting of grains, the expansion proposal targets 12,5 million hectares, which must be managed based on principles such as minimum soil disturbance; permanent cover with live plants or straw; and plant diversification in crop rotation, with the addition of organic plant material.     

One solution to be used is the use of microorganisms from bio-inputs. With increasing importance for national agriculture, technology places Brazil as a great exponent in this scenario, so much so that, in 2020, Mapa launched the National Bioinputs Program. 

Microorganisms act not only for biological nitrogen fixation, but also as plant growth promoters, in addition to improving the fixation and/or availability of nutrients in the soil and as natural predators in biological control. The proposed application for this technology, by 2030, is 13 million hectares. 

With ABC+, it is also expected to increase the volume of waste managed from the production of confined animals, especially pigs, cattle and poultry, enhancing the synergy between economic and environmental gains on rural properties. Waste management from animal production encompasses technologies for the treatment of all types of waste arising from animal production, such as liquid waste (composed of a mixture of cleaning water, feces, urine and food waste), bedding, animal carcasses non-slaughtered dead bodies and physiological waste, among others, and adequate stabilization of their effluents. 

The treatment of waste from animal production is an alternative to storage in lagoons (manure pits), a system that emits high levels of greenhouse gases, mainly methane. The plan's forecast is that 208,4 million m3 of animal production waste will be treated, a volume corresponding to 27% of the total waste generated by livestock production systems. 

Benefits to the producer 

“Sustainability was seen as a co-benefit some time ago, but today it is a sine qua non for a path of no return in agriculture. By increasing sustainability through the use of appropriate technologies, production will consequently increase”, argues the Secretary of Innovation, Rural Development and Irrigation, Fernando Camargo. 

In addition to promoting production systems that are more adapted to climate change and that safeguard natural resources, the ABC Plan promotes a portfolio of technologies with a solid technical-scientific basis, which also considers economic and social aspects.   

In other words, the success of the ABC plan and its evolution towards production in the coming years brings business opportunities for rural producers, increasing productivity, reducing production losses, generating jobs and improving the quality of life in the countryside. 

With increased productivity, the producer benefits from the efficient use of natural resources, factors that are almost exclusive to field production. It is from them, added to a system that mitigates or neutralizes carbon, that the producer obtains recognition and appreciation for his product in the market.   

An example already found in national markets is carbon neutral meat. Produced in Brazil, the protein adds to its value the fact that all the methane emitted by cattle is neutralized into carbon equivalents during the production process through the growth of trees and vegetation integrated into the property. 

This is the integrated system, which combines animal husbandry, pasture and forestry components in the same area to sequester and fix carbon in the soil. By 2030, it must be implemented in an additional 0,10 million hectares either via Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration Systems (ILPF) or Agroforestry Systems (SAF). 

Participatory process 

Director Mariane Crespolini highlights that the dissemination of technologies and strengthening of actions will be worked strategically via technical assistance and training with the support of federated entities. Producers can also count on access to credit and financing via the ABC Program and other credit lines for the adoption and stimulation of sustainable production systems. 

Both the management and operationalization of ABC+ in the national territory involve the effective management of Mapa together with state management groups, strengthening the structuring of a capillary network of governance integrated with national policy. Thus, monitoring and governance evolve with the systematization and evaluation of results in a computerized system, which will be fed back with data captured by satellites and drones, for example. 

Every two years, the goals and technologies will be reviewed and may be changed and new systems added to the plan. The goals and technologies defined for ABC+ received contributions via public consultation, held throughout the month of September 2021. There were around 500 participants for the construction of the Sector Plan for Adaptation and Low Carbon Emissions in Agriculture.