Towards thrifty and self-sufficient production systems : study on the training program 'Building up and strengthening your thrifty and self-sufficient grazing system'

摘要

This study has been conducted within a farmers’ association in Western France (Loire-Atlantique) promoting sustainable agriculture: the CIVAM DEFIS. The goal was to evaluate atwo years training program by identifying the profiles of the farmers who enroll in it and howtheir systems have evolved. The targeted systems are dairy farms, cow/calf and sheepoperations, main livestock farms found in this geographical area.The program itself is being carried out with the objective of helping farmers to implementthrifty and self-sufficient grazing systems on their farms. The desired outcome of suchsystems is to obtain viable and more sustainable farms by decreasing expenses. This isdone through the development of grazing proportion in the ration by a technique of rotationalgrazing in paddocks.Semi-directive interviews were conducted with 22 former and current trainees. As a result ofthese discussions it was found that a majority of the farmers who enroll in the program cameto refine their technique and develop the grazing part but were already farming with grassbeforehand. This fact raises the question of why more intensive systems are not interested ingrazing systems. It seems that livestock grazing is perceived as obsolete and that farmersare in some ways pressured into sticking to more “conventional” ways of farming.As for the training program itself, it was found to be relatively efficient as 64% of the traineeshave succeeded in evolving their systems towards more thrifty and self-sufficient ones. Theremaining 36 % are farmers who had less grass-oriented systems at the enrollment time andfor whom two years of training seems to be too short of a time to implement all the necessarychanges both on their farms and in their way of thinking. Consequently suggestions of posttrainingcoaching were made such as individual support or the creation of local groups. Ifthose suggestions were to be applied they could improve the program’s effectiveness intopromoting thrifty and self-sufficient grazing systems as they are highly profitable on manylevels. They are beneficial for farmers as individuals since they allow to improve both theirincome and working conditions. The entire society can also gain from them as they help topreserve farmers’ sovereignty and to produce healthy food at a fairly good level ofproductivity per hectare while preserving the environment.