Diversity of goat livestock systems in Livradois-Forez ( France ) and forms of ecological intensification
2014
Gomes, L C | Pailleux, J Y | Dedieu, B | Cournut, S
The Livradois-Forez (LF) is a small region of fairly low mountains in France where grazing live- stock, mainly cattle, is largely based on grass. In this territory, goat farms are a minority but an attractive way to produce on small areas (fragmented and heterogeneous land) and use ecosystems with limited potential. The objective of this study was to analyse the diversity of goat farming systems (GFS) and assess their eco- logical intensification position. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 farmers, a sample select- ed to cover the diversity of livestock forms in this territory. Our approach is constructed on three concepts: the farming system, the framework of the farming activity and agro-ecology for animal production. We iden- tified four types of GFS operations discriminated by the place of goat livestock in the farm and the mobiliza- tion of available resources. We present and explain the correspondence between types of operations and ecologically-intensive practice profiles. We show the interest of the approach to identify what promotes or lim- its the development of these systems into more ecologically-intensive forms. Keywords.
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