OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is to identify possible development paths for organic farming in the DROM, both for organized sectors and more diffuse systems (numerous small herds).

It examines the prospects of more effective crop-livestock integration (CLI) that would make it possible to increase the self-sufficiency of farms (particularly from the point of view of animal feed and the supply of organic fertilizers), as a way of developing organic farming at both the farm and territory levels.

REALISATIONS

At all three sites (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion Island):

• Socio-technical diagnostics enabled us to identify the stakeholders networks and the obstacles to the development of organic livestock farming and CLI, including the self-reinforcing mechanisms of socio-technical lock-in.
• Tracking on-farm innovation has highlighted innovative CLI practices that include animal health, weed control and crop protection, in addition to animal feed and organic fertilization. Breeders' satisfaction criteria are, in fact, multiple, and are linked, for example, to the  performance and welfare of the animals, to the economic results and workload.
• Modeling CLI farm-types according to economic criteria, with simulations in which rations contain 30% and 100% of local resources, showed that, in the current context, CLI can be of economic interest, but in terms of surface area, it did not confer any significant advantage, given the small size of farms

Taking advantage of the momentum created with local stakeholders, this project is continuing with the construction of prospective scenarios for organic livestock farming.

Participants

INRAE units

• ASTRO, Petit Bourg
• INNOVATION, Montpellier
• SADAPT, Grignon
• SELMET, Montpellier
• TERRITOIRES, Clermont Ferrand
• URZ, Petit Bourg

Partners

• CIRAD