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The International Institute for Sustainability (IIS), with the collaboration of other organizations and coordinated by the Center of Life Institute (ICV), launched on Wednesday (8) in Mato Grosso, the New Field Program, which aims to promote sustainable practices on cattle ranches in the Amazon, improving its economic performance, social and environmental. The initiative aims to help reduce deforestation, conserve and replenish natural resources and strengthen the local economy.

The program promotes integrated management of rural property, with the progressive adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for Beef Cattle, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). The new field is the result of a pilot project, initiated in 2012, which showed very positive results, such as reducing the age at slaughter, from 44 to 36 months for males and 34 to 26 months for females, increased productivity from 4.7 to more than 12 kilos per hectare per year, as well as improved meat quality and income of producers.

The new field will be deployed initially in the region of Alta Floresta, greater pole of livestock in northern Mato Grosso, including the cities of Carlisle, Paranaíta, Nova Monte Verde, New Bandeirantes and Apiacás besides Cotriguaçu, located in northwestern state.

To participate, producers must be in compliance with environmental and labor issues, and hire technical assistance by accredited program. The work begins with the completion of a diagnosis of each property is then developed and implemented a technical-economic project, which shall be continuous monitoring of the certified technician.

To encourage such investments, participating producers will have access to a bonus price, based on criteria of carcass quality. Moreover, mechanisms are being developed to facilitate access to credit.

To ensure the implementation, the program is training a group of professional technical assistance, supporting the creation of an association of producers of sustainable livestock and developing tools that facilitate the management of the farm on a daily basis and will ensure that the origin of the animals buyers.

According to Laurent Micol, executive coordinator of the ICV, the program is an experiment in scale transformation of the livestock production system. “We will demonstrate in practice that it is possible to produce more and better in a region like Alta Floresta, without deforesting and still recovering degraded areas,” he said.

The New Field Program has also a partnership with Embrapa, the Rural Trade Unions of Alta Floresta and Cotriguaçu, the Institute of Agricultural and Forest Management and Certification (Imaflora), Solidaridad Foundation and the multinational JBS SA Account meats also supported by the Vale Fund, the Moore Foundation, the Working Group of Sustainable Farming (GTPS) and the Norwegian Cooperation (Norad).