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Conference paper2024Peer reviewed

Agro-ecological indicators to assess the effect of grazing at farm level

Looney, C.; Schetelat, S.; Caraes, C.

Abstract

The Grazing4AgroEcology (G4AE) project is an EU network to promote grazing and support grazingbased farms on their economic and ecologic performances as well on animal welfare across eight European countries (France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Sweden). Five principles of agroecology were adopted by the project and used as the base to determine agro-ecological indicators for the assessment of the grazing capacities at farm level: (1) Adopting management practices that aim to improve animal health, (2) reducing the inputs required for production, (3) reducing the risk of pollution by optimising the biogeochemical functioning of farming systems, (4) enhancing diversity within production systems to strengthen their resilience, and (5) preserving biodiversity in agro-ecosystems by adapting management practices. These indicators were implemented into a self-assessment tool that allows farmers to assess their own farm performance in order to make targeted improvements. The tool was trialled on eight farms in France and four farms in Ireland. The results have provided the farmers with a quantified assessment on the agro-ecological performance of their farms. It provides a basis for the dissemination and implementation of best practices within each farm and gives an insight into the potential to improve on-farm performance.

Keywords

agroecology; grazing; indicators; self-assessment; participatory methods

Published in

Title: Why grasslands? : Proceedings of the 30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Leeuwarden, the Netherlands 9-13 June 2024
eISBN: 978-90-903-8494-8Publisher: Brill

Conference

30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Leeuwarden (EGF 2024), 9-13 June 2024, The Netherlands