Colombia: Climate-Smart Farming in Colombia’s Last Agricultural Frontier

Mar 16, 2018 | World Bank
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The Orinoquía is considered Colombia’s last agricultural frontier, with the potential to serve as a food source for Colombia, and the world. While exploiting this potential is vital for the livelihood of farmers, it is also a crucial part of Colombia’s development agenda. But agricultural expansion comes at a cost. Clearing forests to create pasture land is a leading driver of deforestation in Orinoquía. Not only are these forests vital to mitigate climate change, they are home to hundreds of species of mammals and birds. Other threats include the draining and conversion of millions of hectares of highly biodiverse native savannas, including flooded savannas, which are associated with high levels of methane emissions. The region belongs to the Orinoco river watershed that encompasses the region’s vast grasslands and rainforests, and is the source for about a quarter of all running water in Colombia.