The Billion Agave Project

The Billion Agave Project is a game-changing ecosystem-regeneration strategy that has been adopted by several innovative Mexican farms in the high-desert region of Guanajuato.

This strategy combines the growing of agave plants and nitrogen-fixing companion tree species (such as mesquite), with holistic rotational grazing of livestock. The result is a high-biomass, high forage-yielding system that works well even on degraded, semi-arid lands.

The system produces large amounts of agave leaf and root stem – up to one ton of biomass over the 8-10-year life of the plant. When chopped and fermented in closed containers, this plant material produces an excellent, inexpensive (two cents per pound) animal fodder. This agroforestry system reduces the pressure to overgraze brittle rangelands and improves soil health and water retention, while drawing down and storing massive amounts of atmospheric CO2.

The goal of the Billion Agave campaign is to plant one billion agaves globally to draw down and store one billion tons of climate-destabilising CO2. The campaign will be funded by donations and public and private investments.

Why Agave?

Climate-Change Solution

Agave plants and nitrogen-fixing trees, densely intercropped and cultivated together, have the capacity to draw down and sequester massive amounts of atmospheric CO2. They also produce more above-ground and below-ground biomass (and animal fodder) on a continuous year-to-year basis than any other desert or semi-desert species. Agaves alone can draw down and store above ground the dry-weight equivalent of 30-60 tons of CO2 per hectare (12-24 tons per acre) per year.