2019/01/01 by Marc Moraine, Moraine, Marc, Sonia Ramonteu +5
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Social Sciences · #0 #Action collective #Agriculture and Rural Development Research #Agroecology #Agroécologie #Biogas #Collective actions #Crop-livestock integration #Development groups #French Urban and Social Studies #GIEE #Intégration culture – élevage #Méthanisation #Social Sciences and Governance #Territoire #Territory
paper · pdf · doi:10.15454/myichb
openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Complementarities between crop and livestock systems beyond farm level are either theoretical ideals or field realities, but the last ones are poorly documented. Very diverse farmers’ groups, more or less important in number of farms, volumes and regularity of exchanged products, draw a plural portrait of this reality. This article proposes a typology of crop-livestock integration initiatives beyond farm level. This typology is based on the study of 56 French groups of farms, identified through institutional networks (Ministrygranted projects, Organic farmers associations, etc.). Twelve interviews with projects’ animators or leaders were conducted to define the motivations and implementation strategies in the initiatives, chosen to represent the different thematic and action scales. Eight types of initiatives have been identified, among which three rely only on sharing equipment and/or knowledge exchange to reach self-sufficiency at farm level. The other five rely on between-farm exchanges of products, with different objectives: group-level self-sufficiency, supply of diversified products in short supply chains, exchanges of fields, common management of a biogas unit. The typology also shows a diversity of technical and organizational levers for crop-livestock integration, with diverse options of cooperation with local stakeholders. From these results we suggest public policies’ and professional organisations’ options for supporting collective action towards crop-livestock integration in territories: support for investments, communication, training.