Photo credit: N. Palmer (CIAT)

How to navigate tools and data for reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions

Currently, the data and tools for undertaking critical environmental assessments in agricultural systems are scattered – if they exist at all. This occurs despite data being essential to make meaningful investments and decisions around agriculture and climate.

Responding to this challenge, SEBI-Livestock recently launched a dashboard allowing users to navigate more than 30 environmental assessment tools for agri-food systems via the Livestock Data for Decisions evidence platform, livestockdata.org.

In putting together the tools, we noticed a number of important gaps and shortcomings. For example, tools are only designed to measure one component of the agricultural system, and many do not account for social or economic factors. As well, most tools are designed with high-income countries in mind, rather than low- and middle-income countries, often those who need access to such tools most.

Learn more about the dashboard and read our reflections

Karen Smyth, SEBI-Livestock Program Director, also published a guest essay in Devex, highlighting data gaps and the LD4D tool navigator. “To plan greenhouse gas emissions reduction in the agricultural sector, low- and middle-income countries need data on where, how, and by how much emissions can be lowered,” she writes.

Read the guest essay

Interested in learning more about livestock and the environment?


Header image: Silvopastoral livestock systems in Colombia’s southwestern Cauca Department, where researchers are working with livestock farmers to help increase adoption of silvopastoralism, which can improve the productivity and incomes, protect and restore soils, and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems. Photo credit: N. Palmer (CIAT). (Source)


Vanessa Meadu, Communications and Knowledge Exchange Specialist, SEBI-Livestock
Page created: 29 Nov 2023 Page last reviewed: 29 Nov 2023