New Investment Roadmap aims to enhance access to digital tools that boost livestock productivity and unlock data for better methane management.
With livestock emissions rising and climate commitments mounting, governments and development banks working across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face an urgent need for actionable solutions that increase food production while delivering on climate goals.
The Investment Roadmap: Digital Services for Livestock Methane in LMICs, launched this week, aims to enhance access to digital tools that boost livestock productivity and unlock data for better methane management. It is targeted at International Financial Institutions (development banks) and national policy makers in LMICs.
The roadmap addresses a critical challenge: current levels of livestock production in LMICs cannot keep up with rising demand for animal protein, risking unchecked escalation of greenhouse gas emissions without strategic intervention.
Digital services for livestock can offer a cost-effective solution to reaching livestock producers and sector actors at scale with good practices that enhance productivity and provide vital data for reducing methane emissions intensity. Currently, however, the adoption and scale-up of digital tools in many LMICs remains limited due to inadequate digital public infrastructure, low policy integration, and weak investment models.
The roadmap is authored by a LD4D Solutions Group brought together by SEBI-Livestock, in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), a UNEP-convened initiative. “We assembled experts spanning livestock, climate, finance, policy, and digital innovation to address complex data and evidence challenges in the sector,” explained Ana Miranda, LD4D Development Manager. Over a four-month period, SEBI-Livestock supported the group to work together to identify the data barriers to digital service adoption across livestock value chains and prepare evidence-based guidelines to inform investments and strengthen policy and practice.
Four Strategic Pathways
The roadmap structures its approach around four mutually reinforcing pathways: building digital public infrastructure, integrating digital services into national policies, mobilising livestock data ecosystems, and leveraging private sector investment for last-mile delivery.
Digital services for livestock can support methane reduction in three key ways, according to co-author Şeyda Özkan. First, they improve how efficiently livestock produce milk, meat and eggs. Second, they provide crucial data for greenhouse gas tracking systems. Third, they help decision makers better understand their emissions and devise the best solutions for their specific situations.
Real-World Impact
The roadmap highlights examples where digital services are already being scaled. The Dairy Interventions for Mitigation and Adaptation (DaIMA) programme in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda has leveraged $350 million to reduce dairy emissions by over 2 million tonnes CO2e whilst increasing milk production by 30%. The programme uses several DSL tools, for example to calculate emissions and balance feed rations. Meanwhile in India, Stellapps Technologies has scaled to reach 3.5 million dairy producers across 17 states, digitally tracing over 14 million litres of milk daily whilst providing free services to smallholder farmers.
“Through the roadmap, we hope to demonstrate how digital services can support transformation in the livestock sector by improving productivity and reducing emissions, whilst supporting robust data systems for GHG accounting,” noted Ana Miranda.
This is an exciting example of UoE-led international collaboration on real-world policy issues that can transform livelihoods and drive climate action. SEBI-Livestock is in Rome this week at the FAO Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation, sharing the report widely with key stakeholders, and will continue to work closely with governments and development banks to put the roadmap into use.
An interactive webinar, “Turning Roadmaps into Reality: Digital Services for Livestock Methane Reduction in LMICs,” will be held on Thursday, October 30, 2025, from 2:00-3:30 PM UK Time, bringing together experts, government officials and development finance leaders to explore practical implementation pathways.
Learn more:
- Read the roadmap – Investment Roadmap: Digital Services for Livestock Methane in LMICs
- Meet the authors – Digital Services for Livestock Methane Management Solutions Group
- Register for the webinar – Turning Roadmaps into Reality: Digital Services for Livestock Methane Reduction in LMICs
About LD4D: Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) is a worldwide community of over 2000 members and partners working to improve livestock data and evidence in low- and middle-income countries. LD4D aims to support the transition to more sustainable and inclusive livestock systems by mobilising livestock data and evidence for better policies, investments, and strategies. LD4D is convened by SEBI-Livestock, the Centre for Supporting Evidence Based Interventions in Livestock, which is hosted by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. Learn more at livestockdata.org