Digital tools enable solutions on livestock emissions

A collaborative output aims to enhance access to digital tools that boost livestock productivity and unlock data for better methane management.

It aims to meet an urgent need in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to enable increased food production while delivering on climate goals, as livestock emissions rise and climate commitments mount. 

The Investment Roadmap: Digital Services for Livestock Methane in LMICs, is targeted at international financial institutions - development banks – and national policymakers in LMICs.

SEBI-Livestock, hosted by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, has launched the roadmap through the Livestock Data for Decisions network.

The roadmap addresses a critical challenge in which 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 seek to offer a cost-effective solution to reaching producers and sector stakeholders 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 owing 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. 

A team of experts in livestock, climate, finance, policy, and digital innovation sought to address complex data and evidence challenges in the sector. They identified data barriers to digital service adoption across livestock value chains and prepared evidence-based guidelines to inform investments and strengthen policy and practice. 

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 by improving how efficiently livestock produce milk, meat and eggs. In addition, they provide crucial data for greenhouse gas tracking systems, and they help decision makers better understand their emissions and devise the best solutions for their specific situations.

The roadmap highlights examples where digital services are already being scaled, such as the Dairy Interventions for Mitigation and Adaptation (DaIMA) programme in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. 

This has leveraged US$350 million to reduce dairy emissions by over 2 million tonnes CO2 equivalent, while increasing milk production by 30 per cent. 

The programme uses several digital services for livestock 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 while providing free services to smallholder farmers.