On September 25, 2024, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM, the "La terre est Notre Métier" exhibition will host a captivating conference on "Agroforestry in Monogastric Livestock: A Winning Alliance in Many Ways." This session will highlight the benefits of integrating trees into pig and poultry livestock systems. Discussions will focus on the synergies between agroforestry and livestock, exploring how this practice can enhance farm sustainability while promoting animal welfare.
Research projects, including those supported by ITAVI and ITAB, will demonstrate how combining trees with livestock can enrich poultry pastures, reduce thermal stress, and diversify farmers' income. A farmer will also share his practical experience with agroforestry, offering insights into the benefits and challenges of this approach. AGROBIO 35 will present key elements for successfully integrating an agroforestry system into livestock operations, including levers and resources to mobilize.
This conference is aimed at farmers, livestock producers, technicians, researchers, and agroforestry project managers, and seeks to show how agroforestry can transform monogastric livestock practices by providing sustainable and innovative solutions.
Partners : ITAB, ITAVI, AGROBIO35, Ferme du Petit Lanac’h
Event website : https://www.salonbio.fr/
Tech&Bio is a French international agricultural show on organic farming. It is a forum for technical exchange on the development of sustainable agricultural production practices. Through demonstrations in the field, testimonials from farmers and businesses and farm visits, the show provides an opportunity to discuss new organic and alternative production techniques.
The 2023 edition of the show highlighted various research projects on the interaction between livestock farming and arboriculture by presenting the results of trials on pastured orchards. Whether apple, peach, or apricot trees, pastured by poultry, rabbits or sheep, the results are rich and varied.
Here are links for 3 conferences paper published at the end of the show :
- Rabbits in apple orchards : what interest ? (https://technbio.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/3416/9692/9329/Porcs_volailles_lapins_-_L_interet_du_paturage_sous_verger_pour_les_lapins.pdf)
- Pastured orchards in France, different examples. (https://technbio.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/3416/9692/9329/Porcs_volailles_lapins_-_L_interet_du_paturage_sous_verger_pour_les_lapins.pdf)
- Innovative apricot orchards : (https://technbio.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/5916/9692/9765/Arboriculture_-_Innovations_dans_les_systemes_de_conduite_des_vergers_bio.pdf)
The groupings on Livestock, Arable Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, in collaboration with ACTA and the RMT SPICEE, have joined forces to launch this study on the reconnection between crops and livestock. The REVE ‘REconnexion Végétal - Elevage’ mission, conducted from 2020 to 2023, had several objectives:
- Make an inventory of reconnection initiatives and projects in order to propose a typology;
- Analyse the obstacles and levers to crop livestock initiatives on a regional scale;
- Analyse the benefits and limitations of animal-plant recoupling (e.g. integrating animals into perennial crops to manage weeds and pests);
Following the organisation of the final seminar of the mission, on April 2023 in Paris, you will find the summary documents of the day: report of the morning and restitution of the workshops. The slides are available at the following address: https://www.gis-avenir-elevages.org/actualites/seminaire-final-de-restitution-de-l-etude-reconnexion-vegetal-elevage-reve
Agroforestry in livestock farming is a long-established practice that applies to wooded runs for pigs and poultry, pastures in “bocage” areas, silvopastoralism, the use of animals in perennial crops and fodder trees, etc. Agroforestry is a lever in livestock farming for climate change adaptation and is also a provider of services such as carbon storage, biodiversity, timber production, wood chips production for litter…
As part of its work, the livestock farming technical group of the “Agroforesterie(S)” Mixed Technology Network has created an interactive library that brings together the knowledge on agroforestry in livestock farming, produced by R&D organizations in France.
From 19 to 21 March 2024, the RMT SPICEE (French national network ‘Structure and Produce Innovations for Crops and Livestock Together’) organised a symposium on crop-livestock systems, in the broadest sense of the term, entitled ‘Crop-livestock interactions, levers for agricultural resilience facing the crises of the 21st century’. The event was held on the campus of the Institut Agro in Montpellier. The aim of the colloquium was to consolidate the current dynamic of exchange on crop-livestock systems by involving scientific, professional, training and advisory players, as well as institutional bodies.
Oral presentations and testimonials covered 3 themes:
- Theme 1: Deploying a circular economy between animal and plant sectors on a regional scale: dreams, realities, conditions for implementation,
- Theme 2: Building and assessing systems that combine crops and livestock,
- Theme 3: Using original tools and methods in teaching and advisory to support the diversity of forms of crop-livestock integration.
All presentations and abstracts are available online: https://interactions-culture-elevage.colloque.inrae.fr/
The Luz’Co project, launched from 2016 to 2019 and co-financed by CASDAR, aims to promote forage legumes through collective initiatives. Led by FRcuma Ouest and involving 12 national partners, this action-research project explored the benefits of legumes, such as improving protein self-sufficiency and soil structure. Luz'Co seeks to overcome barriers to their adoption by encouraging collective initiatives to develop alfalfa. The project’s website, a resource center, centralizes and disseminates practical content for farmers, facilitators, and those in education and research, thus supporting the emergence of agroecological systems based on alfalfa. A presentation video of the project is also available for more information.
Project Website and Resource Center: Le projet – Le centre de ressources Luz'Co (luzco.fr)
Project Presentation Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGCCSCHVmno
The aim of the project supported by Bio de PACA from 2018 to 2022 is to verify the conditions for success and the advantages/disadvantages of different types of associations, and to contribute to the redeployment of this age-old practice.
3 technical guides:
- Sheep grazing in orchards in the Alpilles, feedback and lessons learned,
- Sheep grazing in orchards facing the copper risk. Experiments and recommendations,
- Introduce hens or chickens into organic orchards, Collection of experiences;
Find the deliverables and special issues published following the conferences organised on the theme of mixed crop-livestock farming systems and territorial crop-livestock interactions:
- conference in Poitiers 2012 and Innovations Agronomiques Journal, volume 22 (2012),
- conference in Toulouse 2013 and Innovations Agronomiques Journal, volume 39 (2014),
- conference in Dijon 2017 and Innovations Agronomiques Journal, volume 72 (2019) and Fourrages Journal n°235 (2020),
- conference in Poitiers 2019 and Innovations Agronomiques Journal, volume 80 (2020),
- conference in Montpellier 2024: presentations and abstracts
The development of the practice of agroforestry is widely conditioned, on the scale of a given territory,
by the capacity:
● to support this practice: technical advice and animation for planting;
● to benefit from financial support dedicated to the farmer for the realization of his project: plant material, protection, mulching, technical monitoring during planting and to management. The nature of the financing to the planter and the very variable amount financed are noted, with aid ranging from simple plant material to the entire material: plants, protections, mulching, technical monitoring, support and work carried out.
This work aims to capitalize, at local, departmental, regional and national aid that can be mobilized for development of agroforestry existing before the establishment of measure "Let's plant hedges of the recovery plan (2021)". This will allow us to subsequently analyze the impact of this measure on the development of agroforestry on the national territory. In this working group, by aid we mean private and public financing schemes addressed to farmers, communities, companies and associations on agricultural land. These aid must concern the different forms of agroforestry and small afforestation but does not concern not forest plantation or pure fruit plantations (orchards).
The AGROSYL project, led by the Operational Group of the European Innovation Partnership (GO EIP), focuses on promoting innovative agricultural practices related to forests and wood. AGROSYL explores four key themes: silvopastoralism, forage white mulberry, fruit experimentation, and the use of wood mulch in cattle housing, thus strengthening the link between agriculture and sustainable forestry.
Summary of Project Results: Agrosyl: After Five Years of the Project, What Are the Results? - Chambre d'agriculture Ariège (chambre-agriculture.fr)
Project Presentation Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN31YIpaH7U
Agrosyl Diagnostic Presentation Video: INRAE (UMR Pasto) presents the participatory work conducted with 62 farmers as part of the project. 34 tree-related solutions were identified in response to 10 recurring needs of producers (improving animal welfare, forage autonomy, etc.). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhzbLPp8IZE
Project presentation on RMT agroforestery France website : Agrosyl • RMT AgroforesterieS (rmt-agroforesteries.fr)
