Cattle ranching in Colombia: A monolithic industry?

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dc.creatorTriana Ángel, Natalia
dc.creatorCampuzano, Lorena
dc.creatorBurkart, Stefan
dc.date2022-09-15
dc.date2022-09-30T10:42:50Z
dc.date2022-09-30T10:42:50Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T13:33:22Z
dc.descriptionThe Colombian cattle sector on the one hand contributes to the rural economy and producer welfare but on the other hand is one of the main contributors to climate change and environmental degradation. Given this panorama, the sector is currently under transformation towards more sustainability, including both climate change mitigation and adaptation. One solution for achieving sustainable intensification is the implementation of sustainable, forage-based cattle production systems. Despite the availability of sustainable technologies and practices, adoption levels are low, however. This study analyses literature on the history of cattle ranching and agricultural innovation adoption in Colombia to understand how cattle production systems have evolved from the 1950s until today. Departing from new scholarship that has questioned the idea that cattle ranching has been only a land-grabbing strategy dominated by few elites, this article focuses on the adoption of improved pastures and the role of key institutions in the transformation of practices and the shortcomings of technification. It shows that Colombia has had big transformations with the introduction of improved pastures, particularly Brachiaria spp., but these transformations did not translate into a radical change in the dominant extensive livestock production systems. Instead of promoting intensification, the adoption of Brachiaria has allowed producers to expand more, often resulting in high levels of deforestation. One of the main contributions of this article is the analysis of economic, developmentalist, and institutional reports that are not often used to construct historical analysis. It can also serve to scholars interested in the adoption of agricultural techniques.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/121969
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/63093
dc.languageen
dc.publisherBioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceTriana-Ángel, N.; Campuzano, L.; Burkart, S. (2022) Cattle ranching in Colombia: A monolithic industry? Poster prepared for Tropentag 2022 - Can Agroecological Farming Feed the World? Farmers' and Academia's Views. Prague, Czech Republic, 14-16 September 2022. Cali (Colombia): Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT. 1 p.
dc.subjectextensive husbandry
dc.subjectinnovation adoption
dc.subjectclimate change
dc.subjectforage
dc.subjectresilience
dc.subjectsustainable intensification
dc.subjectganadería extensiva
dc.subjectadopción de innovaciones
dc.subjectcambio climático
dc.titleCattle ranching in Colombia: A monolithic industry?
dc.typePoster

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