Suchergebnisse

The aim of this work was to elucidate the socio-cultural and economic value of a number of ecosystem services delivered by mountain agroecosystems (mostly grazing systems) in Euro-Mediterranean regions. We combined deliberative (focus groups) and survey-based stated-preference methods (choice modelling) to, first, identify the perceptions of farmers and other citizens on the most important ecosystem services and, second, to value these in economic terms according to the willingness to pay of the local (residents of the study area) and general (region where the study area is located) populations. Cultural services (particularly the aesthetic and recreational values of the landscape), supporting services (biodiversity maintenance) and some regulating services (particularly fire risk prevention) were clearly recognized by both farmers and citizens, with different degrees of importance according to their particular interests and objectives. The prevention of forest fires (≈50% of total willingness to pay) was valued by the general population as a key ecosystem service delivered by these agroecosystems, followed by the production of specific quality products linked to the territory (≈20%), biodiversity (≈20%) and cultural landscapes (≈10%). The value given by local residents to the last two ecosystem services differed considerably (≈10 and 25% for biodiversity and cultural landscape, respectively). The Total Economic Value of mountain agroecosystems was ≈120 € person−1 year−1, three times the current level of support of agro-environmental policies. By targeting and quantifying the environmental objectives of the European agri-environmental policy and compensating farmers for the public goods they deliver, the so-called "green" subsidies may become true Payments for Ecosystems Services ; Funding: The research was funded by: Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2011 IEF, Contract no. 299794 (European Commission) and INIA-RTA2011-00133-C02-02 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Government of Aragón and FEDER). TR-O and RR-B acknowledge the doctoral financial support of INIA. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Published ; Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All data are publicly accessible without restriction at http://hdl.handle.net/10532/2473 and http://citarea.cita-aragon.es/citarea/handle/10532/2473 This is a public repository AgriOcean DSpace (AOD)1.2, which is a FAO-UNESCO version of the program DSpace 1.7.1 (JSPUI version).

Pastoralists face increasing competition for land with crop farmers and nature in and around the W Biosphere Reserve (WBR) in Benin. Our aim was to describe and analyse land use changes in order to understand their drivers, and to describe and analyse the viewpoints of relevant stakeholders in order to understand the competition for land. To this end, remote sensing data, regional statistics, and survey data were collected. We found that crop land expansion around the WBR was the direct driver of decrease of the grazing land area. Population growth and rising demand for food crops, and government support to the cotton sector were indirect drivers of grazing land reduction. Furthermore, competing claims on land among users arose from the complex interaction of crop expansion, presence of WBR and the way it is governed, the lack of support to pastoralists, and the increasing shift of pastoralists' lifestyle into one of settled crop farmers. Pastoralism is under threat and its survival depends on the successful implementation of policies to support pastoralists and protect grazing lands. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-017-0942-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sheep farming systems in Spain are experiencing an intensification process, characterised by a general selection criteria of enhancing prolificacy in ewes, and by increasing indoor feeding with concentrates to the detriment of grazing. This study evaluated the effects of concentrate supplementation and prolificacy on productive and economic performance of a local sheep breed in different price scenarios. Ewes were fed forage hay ad libitum, without (in pre-partum period, PRE-HAY; and in post-partum period, POST-HAY) or with concentrates (300 g/d in pre-partum period, PRE-CON; and 750 g/d in post-partum period, POST-CON). The inclusion of concentrate during the pre-partum period (last 10 weeks of pregnancy) had no effect on the productive performance of the ewes. In contrast, the inclusion of concentrate in the post-partum period (6 weeks), resulted in greater milk yield (1009 vs. 1275 ± 89 g/d), lamb average daily gain (151±12 vs. 225±19 g/d) and lamb output (kg of lamb LW weaned). However, the greater productivity thanks to the use of concentrates did not always turn into greatest profitability, since the economic margin was highly influenced by the cost of the diet and extremely subjected to variability in price of concentrates. Hence, the inclusion of concentrates in sheep meat production was not always justified in economic terms. In conclusion, the use of concentrates should only be considered as long as prices of commodities remain low, and inadvisable when prices reach a certain threshold or are subject to certain volatility in markets. ; This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain and the European Union Regional Development Funds (INIA PET2007-06-C03-01; RZP2009-005) and the Research Group Funds of the Aragon Government (A49 and A11).

To establish animal feeding recommendations, it is required to quantify whether the effects of combining dietary alfalfa and milk on meat composition of light lambs are overlapped or independent. This experiment aimed to evaluate the separate effects of dietary alfalfa and milk access on the light lamb carcass quality (10–11 kg), meat colour, chemical composition, fatty acid profile and α-tocopherol content. Thirty-two lambs were assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The factors were the inclusion of dietary forage (grazed alfalfa vs. concentrate-fed indoors) and lactation length (weaning at a target live-weight of 13 kg vs. suckling until slaughter at 22–24 kg). Dietary alfalfa but not milk supply improved conjugated linoleic acid isomers (CLA), omega-3 fatty acids and α-tocopherol contents in lamb meat without affecting meat colour attributes. Milk supply affected more the fatty acid profile (more saturated) than the α-tocopherol content of meat. Thus, dietary alfalfa improved CLA, omega-3 fatty acids and α-tocopherol content in light lamb without affecting the meat colour, whereas lengthening the lactation period did not provide benefits in terms of meat colour or healthy nutrient composition. ; This study was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and the European Union Regional Development Funds (INIA RTA2012-080-00 and INIA RZP2013-00001-00) and the Research Group Funds of the Aragon Government (A49). M. Blanco contract is supported by INIA-EFS and S. Lobón by a doctoral grant from the Aragón Government.

El futuro de la agricultura, y en particular de la producción animal, es objeto de un intenso debate público y científico que gira alrededor de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción. La sostenibilidad implica la capacidad de autorreproducción de los elementos esenciales —económicos, ambientales y sociales— de una determinada explotación o sector productivo, teniendo en cuenta las relaciones con el entorno socio-económico, cultural, político, de mercado, etc., que es crecientemente determinante y está sometido a cambios constantes y frecuentemente imprevisibles. En este trabajo se presentan dos ejemplos ilustrativos de metodologías aplicadas al análisis sistémico en ganadería de rumiantes en el norte de España. En el primer caso, se aplica el marco de evaluación MESMIS de sostenibilidad y manejo de recursos en sistemas ovinos con diverso grado de intensificación y orientación productiva. Se describe someramente el proceso de recogida de información, elección de puntos críticos e indicadores y valoración de atributos de sostenibilidad en las áreas ambiental, social y económica. En el segundo caso, se describe brevemente el programa de simulación dinámica NODRIZA para rebaños de vacuno de carne y se presentan resultados de evaluación de alternativas de manejo de rebaño y recursos de pastoreo en condiciones de montaña desde diversas perspectivas: técnica, económica, mano de obra y uso de la tierra. ; The future of agriculture and animal production in particular has become a fundamental issue of public and scientific debate. Sustainability of farming systems is placed in the centre of this debate. Sustainability implies the capacity of self-reproduction of any essential component –economic, environmental and social- of a farm, region or industry in relation of its socio-economic, cultural, political, and market environment. This environment is increasingly influential and changes occur frequently and often are unpredictable. In this paper we present two examples illustrating methodologies applied to the systemic analysis of ruminant farming systems in the north of Spain. In the first example, we use the MESM IS framework to assess the sustainability of a number of sheep farms with different degree of intensification and productive orientation. We briefly describe the data collection, the identification of critical points and indicators, and the assessment of sustainability attributes in environmental, social and economic dimensions. In the second example, we present the software NODR IZA for simulation of beef cattle herds and its application to the evaluation of longterm performance of mountain farms under diverse feeding, reproductive and land use management strategies. Trade-offs between production, economics, land use and labour are briefly discussed ; análisis de sistemas ; MESMIS ; programa NODRIZA ; ovino ; vacuno de carne ; España ; systems analysis ; NODRIZA software ; sheep ; beef cattle ; Spain ; Published