Diversification et Réorganisation des Activités productives Liees a l'Elévage dans les Zones Défavorisees (DIFOR-DEF)

(Diversification and reorganisation of productive activities related to animal production in the Less Favoured Areas)

EU PROJECT - FAIR3 CT96-1893
Partners

OBJECTIVES

The present project aims at synthesising the R&D methodologies of various EU teams in order to search for "a way for enhancing the access to technical and organisational progress for rural actors and especially for stock breeders in EU LFAs".

For braking the process of marginalisation, both technical and organisational, the present project Will contribute to the definition, through comparative work in various EU sites, of the mechanisms of decreasing adjustment of technical-economic advice relating to the developments in LFAs by

• studying, along with the organisations involved in advisory work, some alternatives which will be tested by these organisations
• analysing (along the professional partners) all the common responsibilities for the functioning of training and advice, the change of qualifications around a subject which might work as a development lever/pivot at the animal husbandry system
• improving and testing methodological tools (theorising, modelling, simulation) and practical tools (assistance in the training of technicians, multi-criteria advisory packages for PCs) directly relating to training and advisory work
  

To accomplish the main objectives mentioned above, the following detailed, objectives must be fulfilled:

1. Coordinated longitudinal comparative analysis of changes relating to population, activities, professions, employment in the 14 projects concerning 12 rural areas examined.
2. Detailed study of all the aspects linked with the monitoring and analysis of a 'critical object' that will be analysed as the lever of changes (of both humans and "non-human" situations) in the rural areas.
   
   The basic methodological hypothesis is that in order to shed light on the changes, for each zone, a "critical object" has to be chosen; then, the modification of its properties/qualifications will be studied. A 'critical object' should refer to advice linked to the relationship between an actor and a service agency, an object of transactions and/or relationships actors/other operators or/and other rural actors.
   
   Existing work on the Economics of Convention will provide the conceptual framework for interpreting and theorising the research on the qualification crisis in the rural world.
   
   Following the evolution of the characteristics of this 'critical object', the nature of the changes which rural actors and consultants have to face will be revealed. The contribution of the research in the emergence of new collective rules, in the identification of the foundations of conflicts aiming at helping their resolution, or shortly, to the capability to assist in the negotiation among social actors, might take different concrete technical forms (laboratory analyses, experimentation on innovations, strategic research, etc.) According to the areas, depending on the critical object and in relation to the progress of the research results, the product of research will be useful for the advancement of the negotiation process.
   
   
3. Elaboration and testing of tools useful to services concerned with the transfer of technology and training/ education.
   
   Various types of tools should be proposed within the framework of the 3 year programme. They will be constructed based on technical applications as follows:
   
   - simulation applied in the management of good managing practices (partner 8)
   - information technologies in order to ensure better access to information for the farmers (partner 9)
   - 'negotiation decision support system' (partner 6).
   - The reproduction of one (or two ) corpus(es) for educational purposes as well as for the use of the extension services (partners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11)
   - the modelisation that will permit to the advisory services to acquire the practical results of phase 2 (all teams).
   
   In any case, the distinct steps are: conception, realisation, application, testing, evaluation, multiplication and diffusion.
   
   
4. Development of a common methodological corpus based on the organised comparisons of the diversities observed during the re-organization process; a corpus to be used by the above mentioned services and the designers / decision-makers related to rural development policies.
   
   Elaboration which will allow to take into account all the consequences in terms of relationships between producers and the services responsible for the provision of information/advice. This methodological work will be organised, mainly, on a one group per object, and then new groups of participants concerned are going to be formed.
   
   
5. Adaptation of the overall European programme results to the national level (using the appropriate language)
   
   Research of such a nature ought to present all services concerned, not only the ones directly collaborating with this programme, with the results obtained after several years of research. For language reasons, a session per country is going to be organised using the maximum of the communication tools obtained during phase 3.
   
   A maximum audience of consultants of various origins will be the goal. Notably, more interest is going to be placed on the ministries concerned and additional funding is going to be requested, necessary for the diffusion and evaluation in a large scale, of the outcome of this EU project The tools will be prepared following such a logic.
   
   All phases and great parts of the elements will be realised by all teams. The project, aiming at an optimal utilisation of the differences between the 12 situations under examination, will propose an original general methodology to be applied.
   

Each partners' team will commit itself to the idea of research partnerships with various types of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or state development agencies. Two of the project partners are already themselves NGO and the remaining partners will try to secure formal types of research partnerships through subcontracting. By this way, it is expected to better realize the objectives of the project and mainly the tasks of diagnostics, tool conception testing and development.

This project is coordinated at:

University of Athens by Dr Leonidas Kazakopoulos (Fax: +30 1 529 4764)

The other partners are:

University of the Aegean, Dept Human Geography, Greece - Theodosia Anthopoulou

Development Agency of Karditsa , Greece - Alex Koutsouris

National Agricultural Research Foundation, Greece - Christophoros Pappas

INRA France :

SAD Ecodeveloppement - Jean Pluvinage

LRDE Corte - Jean-Philipe Choisis

SAD Toulouse - Pierre-Louis Osty

University of Catania, Italy - Giuseppe Licitra

Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, Spain - Rafael Caballero (FAX: +34 1 871 46 55)

Institute for Ecology and Resource Management, UK - Gareth Edwards-Jones

Archipelagos, Greece - Yerassimos Anzoulatos (FAX: +30 671 24 565)

University of Thessaly, Greece - Dimitris Goussios