04

Our impacts

Planta productora en Chiapas

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) started an interspecific breeding program with Urochloa brizantha (CIAT-6294 cv. Marandú), Urochloa decumbens (CIAT-0606, cv. Basilisk), and Urochloa ruziziensis (BR4X-44-2) in 1987, and since then delivered numerous Urochloa hybrid lines to the private forage seed sector for further selection and commercialization. This has led to the release of the first Urochloa hybrid ever in 2001 in Mexico by Grupo Papalotla and to several subsequent hybrid releases thereafter. Since then, hybrid adoption has happened in >70 countries. The results indicate an adoption between 2001 and 2022 by >1.4 million farmers on >1.6 million ha, which has benefitted almost 11 million people.

Predominantly, these adopters are men (84 %) and notably, about 73 % of the adopters are smallholders. By 2031, this adoption will have generated an economic value of US$ 10-17 billion. Likewise, it is estimated that the adoption has caused a reduction in GHG emissions of 23-54 megatons CO2eq. in the Americas alone. Mulato was the first Urochloa hybrid launched in 2001 in Mexico and quickly spread across Latin America. However, since seed production was economically unviable, it was replaced in 2005 by Mulato II. Until today, Mulato II is the most prominent Urochloa hybrid on the market.

Adopters of the hybrid Urochloa

Farmers

Beneficiaries of the hybrid Urochloa

Seed dosage: 7kg/ha. Values in thousands

Cultivated hectares of the hybrid Urochloa

Value of the hybrid Urochloa

Values in millions of US$ (2015)

Hybrid sales Urochloa, 2001-2022

Figure 1. illustrates the geographic distribution of hybrid seed sales, primarily concentrated in the Americas, accounting for 97.4%.

The top 10 Urochloa hybrid purchasing countries are situated in Latin America, collectively accounting for 89 % of the global hybrid seed sales (Figure 7). The top 5 countries still hold a market share of 78 %, and Brazil and Mexico jointly command over 66 % of the global market, with Brazil's share exceeding 44 %.

Figure 2. Area under Urochloa hybrids from purchased seed - Top 10 countries, 2001-2022, (in ha, cumulative)

Gender and type of hybrid adopters Urochloa, 2001-2022

Africa

Men
64.59%
Women
35.41%
Smallholder
84.94%
47,439 farmers
Medium/largeholder
15.06%
8,414 farmers

Asia

Men
80.45%
Women
19.55%
Smallholder
87.06%
244,502 farmers
Medium/largeholder
12.94%
36,312 farmers

Australia / Oceania

Men
80.09%
Women
19.91%
Smallholder
81.35%
85,579 farmers
Medium/largeholder
18.65%
19,623 farmers

Europe

Men
70.20%
Women
29.80%
Smallholder
33.13%
272 farmers
Medium/largeholder
66.87%
549 farmers

North and Central America, Caribbean

Men
87.84%
Women
12.16%
Smallholder
74.55%
571,469 farmers
Medium/largeholder
25.45%
195,066 farmers

South America

Men
80.28%
Women
19.72%
Smallholder
41.61%
94,321 farmers
Medium/largeholder
58.39%
132,358 farmers

Total global

Men
83.72%
Women
16.28%
Smallholder
72.68%
1,043,582 farmers
Medium/largeholder
27.32%
392,322 farmers
Varios
“Sometimes that's more satisfying for me, personally, than the economic question. That you suddenly meet someone on the street or in a place and there they greet you, you don't even know who they are, but they tell you that one day you recommended your pastures and it works for them. That gives you a lot of satisfaction. It is part, I think, of why we have made a lot of synergy between Papalotla and CIAT, we see ourselves practically as a family, because our fundamental goal is the benefit of the community and we have to transcend and leave something of an impression also on people and in the countryside”
—Papalotla
Comercialización
“The sales network is always supported. Above all, from the municipality, in its type of land, all the characteristics of the land where it is going to be planted. Better material is recommended to them and they are accompanied. Our sales network and technical advice are essential. It's accompanying him. Until what? Until the customer is satisfied”
—Papalotla
Inicios de Papalotla
“How did all this start? One of the founders of Papalotla visits Brazil and they always say this from the commercial area: “this company was born of love, of a love story”. Because this person falls in love with a Brazilian girl, maintains a relationship with her family and they begin importing grass seeds into Mexico. And he, too, always said that he had the dream of returning improved pastures to Africa, because these pastures originated there. Well, in that small intention of the year 1992, it now counts us as the main producer of Brachiaras seeds”
—Papalotla
Importancia de los desarrollos tecnológicos entre las dos empresas
“Pastures with digestibility, with good quality, tell you about the impact: you can earn 700 grams per day per animal and at the same time you can reduce up to 55% of methane emissions produced by a cow. And that's because he has less time to ruminate and more time to eat. The digestibility aspect of developed pastures is incredible potential”
—Papalotla
Importancia de los desarrollos tecnológicos entre las dos empresas
“The biggest impact that has been achieved is a more efficient use of land. All these hybrids that have been released, regardless of whether they are for a dry, humid environment, or shade, have allowed an increase in the number of heads per unit of area. If in the past it was possible to have one cow per hectare, with some of these hybrids it has been possible to obtain four cows per hectare. So that has made it possible to optimize livestock farming, making better use of the land. And the idea itself is that livestock farming will be concentrated in a smaller area and the other area will be available for other crops, or for generating forests. This has perhaps been the biggest impact that, if all the technology that comes with the hybrid is adopted, it is possible to increase the number of head units per hectare and thus it is possible to optimize livestock systems”
—CIAT
Importancia de los desarrollos tecnológicos entre las dos empresas
“For an institution, such as the Bioversity & CIAT Alliance and the CGIAR, the financial side should never be the primary motivation to enter into a relationship with a private sector. This is not our mission and it is not our vision. I think it's very important to keep this very clear and this also means that you are not in a relationship with a trading company that only offers money. Never, never, never. There must be a beneficial relationship for both of us, but for the CGIAR this aspect of the impacts on producers and of having the social and environmental aspects very present is very important. I think that's one of the successes of our relationship with Papalotla.”
—CIAT
Varios
“What people don't see is that fodder is the carpet of the world. When you stop planting cane or potato or any crop, what comes out there? Pastures”
—CIAT
Importancia de los desarrollos tecnológicos entre las dos empresas
“Our vision: we want to consolidate ourselves as the international leader in improving the production and distribution of improved pasture varieties, whose effectiveness, in facilitating the establishment of highly profitable meat and milk production systems around the world, has been proven. Well, you, CIAT, are part of that vision”
—Papalotla
Varios
“The seed is a living being that breathes”
—Papalotla
Varios
“When I finished college in 1982, everyone wanted to go to CIAT, that was the best thing in the whole world. Life would give me, after 20 years, the privilege of, not just knowing CIAT, but of being part of the CIAT project, because the impact it has had on livestock in the tropics is immense, because this has really boosted the production of meat and milk”
—Papalotla
Inicios de Papalotla
“We were born with a dream to bring technology to marginal areas of the world and to see these small producers benefiting from the technology transfer that we bring to them. Nor are we going to limit ourselves to the fact that they are only small producers, we also have businesses with large producers. But our main function is that: to be a company that pushes towards compliance and towards the improvement, in terms of profitability, of these small farmers”
—Papalotla
Inicios de Papalotla
“Papalotla comes from Nahuatl, the indigenous Mexican language and what it means is the place of butterflies. So in Nahuatl, “papa” was butterflies and “lotla” was the place, so Papalotla is the place of butterflies. This idea comes out precisely to highlight this metamorphosis in cultural terms, how people evolve, as if they were in the likeness of a butterfly”
—Papalotla