From 2001 to 2024, this dataset analyzes the adoption and impacts of Urochloa forage grass hybrids across 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was created by Stefan Burkart and hosted on Harvard Dataverse, estimating adoption by over 1.17 million farmers on 1.72 million hectares. The study projects economic value and environmental impacts, including potential greenhouse gas reductions and land sparing.
Use Cases
- Modeling the economic impact of forage adoption based on projected US$50-67 billion in forage value.
- Assessing environmental benefits based on estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions of 1.9-4.5 megatons CO2-eq.
- Analyzing adoption drivers and barriers based on factors like seed system inefficiencies and policy constraints mentioned in the description.
- Evaluating land-use change based on estimates that adoption could spare 1.4-3.3 million hectares of land.
Strengths
- Covers a 23-year time span (2001-2024) and 27 countries, providing broad temporal and geographic scope.
- Integrates multiple data sources, including seed sales data, national statistics, literature, and Monte Carlo simulations.
- Provides specific, quantified estimates for adoption (1.17 million farmers, 1.72 million hectares) and projected impacts.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Provenance
- Source
- Harvard Dataverse
- Collection Method
- Analysis drawing on seed sales data, national statistics, literature, and Monte Carlo simulations.
- Time Range
- 2001-2024
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-06-09 20:46:42; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean