PRESENCE

PRESENCE

Building a shared vision of livestock farming in the Pays de Loire region. The PRESENCE project is part of the TETRAE program, an acronym for "Transition in Territories of Agriculture, Food, and Environment." It is a research initiative conducted in collaboration and funded by INRAE and eight regions of the French territory. The objective of the PRESENCE project is to shed light on the dynamics of bovine farming in the Pays de Loire Region (both dairy and meat sectors) at multiple scales: regional, territorial (areas of public action), and individual (farms) in order to support the sector towards sustainability of operations in social, economic, and ecological terms.

Project description

In Pays de la Loire, cattle farming (both dairy and beef) is a key sector, but it is experiencing a noticeable decline, particularly in areas with lower animal density. It faces conflicting demands in a context of climate, energy, and societal transitions, as well as international competition. In the face of these challenges, maintaining productivity and profitability of farms are clearly major concerns, but the disservices produced by livestock farming as well as the services provided to the territory must also be taken into account. However, the territorial actors involved in their regulation are numerous and their strategies are diverse.

The PRESENCE project will contribute to transitions by:
•    Identifying differentiated territorial logics, allowing for actions tailored to the realities of different territories and providing decision support tools to public decision-makers and stakeholders in the agricultural sectors and advisory services, notably through a GIS tool.
•    Shedding light on the factors of coherence and divergence of strategies of different actors through the comparison of contrasting study territories.
•    Facilitating territorial working groups around the strategic management of cattle farming.

Partners

Scientists : Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (GeF-CNAM), L'Ecole supérieure des agricultures (ESA).

Supply chains and institutions : Chambres d’agriculture, l’IDELE, Interbev, CILOuest, le LIT-Ouesterel, Terre des sciences.

Persons involved in BIOEPAR

Florence BEAUGRAND, Juan Manuel ARIZA-CHACON, Arnaud RAULT, Suzanne BASTIEN, Camilo ARiAS-RUIZ

Inital results

Research component "territories". Study of supply chainsObjective: Analyze how stakeholders in the meat and dairy cattle sectors perceive the various services associated with cattle farming and how they valorize them through their products.

A survey of 28 stakeholders in the sector (industrialists, large and medium-sized retailers, artisans/shopkeepers, livestock traders, and out-of-home catering) revealed that collectively, the surveyed stakeholders identify most of the services (as proposed by Ryschawy et al., 2015), but individually this is not the case. The valorization of these services through their products is generally achieved through local origin and labels, which inherently encompass certain services (local employment, heritage and landscape maintenance).
These differences in perception and valorization of the services provided by livestock farming justify the organization of inter-actor territorial committees where stakeholders can confront their views and develop a common understanding of livestock farming in their territory.

Contact

Florence BEAUGRAND : florence.beaugrand@inrae.fr ; (+33) 02 40 68 78 48

Other information

Research period: 2023 – 2027
Project funded by the TETARE program of INRAE and the Pays de la Loire Region.

See also

https://www.tetrae.fr/