Farming system design for innovative crop-livestock integration in Europe

The development of integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) is a major challenge for the ecological modernisation of agriculture but appears difficult to implement at a large scale. A participatory method for ICLS design has been developed and implemented in 15 case studies across Europe, representing a range of production systems, challenges, constraints and resources for innovation. Local stakeholders, primarily farmers, but also cooperatives, environmental-association representatives and natural-resource managers, were involved in the identification of challenges and existing initiatives of crop-livestock integration; in the design of new options at field, farm and territory levels; and then in qualitative multicriteria assessment of these options. A conceptual framework based on a conceptual model (crops, grasslands, animals) was developed to act as a boundary object in the design step and invite innovative thinking in 'metabolic' and 'ecosystemic' approaches. A diversity of crops and grasslands interacting with animals appeared central for designing sustainable farming systems at the territory level, providing and benefitting from ecosystem services. Within this diversity, we define three types of integrated systems according to their degrees of spatial and temporal coordination: complementarity, local synergy, territorial synergy. Moreover, the options for cooperation and collective organisation between farmers and other stakeholders in territories to organise and manage this diversity of land use revealed opportunities for smart social innovation. The qualitative multicriteria assessment identified farmer workload as the main issue of concern while demonstrating expected benefits of ICLS simultaneously for economic, agronomic, environmental and social criteria. This study concludes that participatory design of ICLS based on a generic multi-level and multi-domain framework and a methodology to deal with a local context can identify new systems to be tested. Further assessment and redesign work will be performed in later stages of the European FP7 CANTOGETHER project.authorsversionPeer reviewe

Variation of LDMC and SLA Relationship Between Growth Forms in Natural Grasslands

In agro-ecological studies, there is a growing interest in measuring both leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and specific leaf area (SLA). This interest lies on the fact that leaf traits are linked to gradients of environmental factors and ecosystem functions. Working with three contrasting wild species, Garnier et al. (2001) proposed a model linking these two traits. The model shows a relatively simple non linear and negative correlation between LDMC and SLA. Nevertheless, none of the species used to build the model were grasses (GRA) or forb rosettes (ROS = i.e. dicotyledonous with large entire leaves and absence of stem at the vegetative stage); the species which make the largest contribution to the standing biomass of most natural grasslands. Furthermore, due to the divergent range of LDMC (and not SLA) values between these growth forms, Cruz et al. (2002) proposed that grass records alone could be used as an indicator of fertility gradients. The aim of this paper was to analyse discrepancies in the LDMC - SLA correlation with respect to model predictions in order to consider them in any development of LDMC-based tools for the management of natural vegetation

Integrating agri-environmental indicators, ecosystem services assessment, life cycle assessment and yield gap analysis to assess the environmental sustainability of agriculture

Agriculture's primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix [Agriculture, Rest of the word]; [Socio-eco system, Ecological system]. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool. © 2022 The Author

Impact assessment of 2003 CAP reform and nitrate directive on arable farming in Midi-Pyrénées: a multi-scale integrated analysis

Part 6. Chapter 20International audienceThis paper analyses the impact of the 2003 CAP reform (the so-called Fischler Reform) and its interaction with the Nitrate Directive on the sustainability of selected arable farming systems in a French region (Midi-Pyrénées). The Nitrate Directive is one of the oldest EU environmental programs designed to reduce water pollution by nitrate from agricultural sources, through a set of measures, defined at regional level, and mandatory for farmers of vulnerable zones. This impact analysis is performed through a bio-economic modelling framework coupling the crop model CropSyst and the farm-based model FSSIM developed, within the EU FP6 SEAMLESS project (Van Ittersum et al., 2008). The 2003 CAP reform was compared first to the continuation of Agenda 2000 Regulations and then to a policy scenario combining the CAP reform with the application of the Nitrate Directive. Compared to the continuation of Agenda 2000 Regulations, the implementation of the 2003 CAP reform leads to (i) a decrease of durum wheat area, as the supplement for durum wheat in traditional production zones was reduced and integrated in the single payment scheme, (ii) a slight increase in the land used for irrigated crops, especially for maize grain, considering that 25% of the payments for these crops remain coupled and (iii) an amelioration of farm income due to a better crop allocation. Regarding the environmental results, the 2003 CAP reform induces a decrease of nitrate leaching mostly because of the drop in the level of durum wheat growing under cereal rotations in profit of soft wheat-sunflower rotation which generates less pollution levels. The impact analysis of the policy scenario shows that the potential 3% premium cut is not enough to compel farmers to adopt the Nitrate Directive and to substitute entirely the current activities by the alternative ones based on better N management. The farm income is marginally affected in spite of this premium cut thanks to the implementation of certain alternative activities which are more competitive. The impact on nitrate leaching is not always positive and swings between -6% to +5% depending on farm types. This implies that the partial adoption of better N management is not sufficient to ensure a reduction of leached nitrate. A sensitivity analysis shows that 17% of premium cut is required to enforce all arable farmers in the region to implement this directive

Documentation of baseline and policy scenarios to be assessed with Prototypes 2 and 3

SEAMLESS integrated project, EU 6th Framework Programme, contract no.010036-2.International audienceThis deliverable describes the construction of baseline and policy scenarios in Test Case 1 and 2 for the second and third prototypes of SEAMLESS-IF. It provides details of the methodology used in SEAMLESS-IP to build scenarios, and the data and parameters needed for the implementation of these scenarios in SEAMLESS-IF. These scenarios will be used to test the second and third prototypes of the integrated framework and its individual tools, especially the two backbone model chains: Data-base-APES-FSSIM-Indicators and Data-bases-APES-FSSIM-EXPAMOD-CAPRI-Indicators. The report is divided in two parts. The first part gives an overview of what we, in the SEAMLESS integrated project, define as a scenario. It also identifies the main elements for defining scenarios in agreement with the literature. After this overview, the steps defining scenarios in SEAMLESS-IF are identified and explained. The last section of the first part applies this approach to four typical user’s problems that SEAMLESS-IF is designed to address: i) Green intensification at regional scale in animal-based farming systems (Auvergne), ii) Nitrate Directive at regional scale in crop based farming systems (Midi-Pyrenees), iii) Trade liberalisation at EU scale and iv) WTO and cotton policies in a LDC country (Sikasso and Koutiala regions of Mali). The second part of the report details the scenarios used in SEAMLESS-IF for Test Case 1 and 2 at EU and regional scales. The scenarios that can be developed depend on the availability of data as well as the model chain used for assessing the impact of the different EU policies and technological innovations. It proposes a template for the baseline and the policy scenarios compatible with the SEAMLESS-IF structure. More details on the parameters (premiums and constraints) of scenarios to be implemented by WP6 with prototype 2 and 3 are given in three sets of annexe