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The James Hutton Institute

This page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute.

Please visit the James Hutton Institute website.

The programme for Nafplio was designed to explore the areas in which different research disciplines could be applied to address the specific problems encountered in LFA livestock production, and possible approaches to enhance the role of livestock in European rural development.

The conference began with three perspectives on some of the biological, social and economic problems facing livestock farms. It was regarded as vital that the relationship between livestock operations and economic development of the rural population should be well understood in order to develop strategic and policy recommendations. The types of constraints facing farmers in disadvantaged areas were categorised into 5 types - availability of labour, management skills, grazing resources, status of other land uses (e.g. forestry and nature reserves), and infrastructure.. Work was reported that aims to characterise the processes linking agricultural policy and marginalisation of farming operations in the EU.

Key elements in many programmes to improve the profitability of farming enterprises are on-farm processing and direct marketing of the products. Value-adding activities give farmers the opportunity to realise some of the market potential provided by their location in regions identified with quality products, and a clean environment. Three papers examined regional differences in on-farm processing , and the opportunities and constraints that farmers face to develop and exploit a quality image.

The third session demonstrated some of the current work that is being carried out aiming to identify the opportunities for species diversification, using cashmere production from goats as an example. Attempts to identify the current relationships between European fibre-producing groups, were reported, relating in particular to two such fibres: mohair and camelid hair. Through a series of market-orientated models, future opportunities for co-operation between present and potential contributors to the European fibre pool were identified, highlighting areas of current strength and weakness.

In the light of the shifting emphasis in agricultural support resulting from, amongst other pressures, the WTO negotiations, environmental management is emerging as possibly the key role, and indeed purpose of, livestock keeping in disadvantaged areas. Many of the ecosystems found in disadvantaged areas are managed through the presence of large herbivores, mainly domestic ruminant species, and there is a great need to identify grazing strategies for different farmed species to meet nature conservation and environmental needs.

These different aspects of farming - overcoming the physical constraints, realising the maximum product value, and managing vegetation effectively and sustainably - are all intimately influenced by the wide range of policy instruments acting in disadvantaged areas. These policies were examined in detail, and the effects of the environmental measures introduced in 1992 were discussed, using UK LFA beef farming as a case study.

The importance of farmers in the rural areas of the Union, and in particular in less-favoured areas, was recognised by all. Agricultural activity will undoubtedly need certain aids to compete on open markets, and this may be more or less direct granted or given as compensation for the occupation and maintenance of land. However, there was a diversity of views expressed on whether the priority should remain to maintain agricultural and livestock production activities oriented around economic and market objectives, or if this might be replaced by a new ethos in which agriculture should be a means to maintain landscapes, and traditional ways of life.

Arguments were put forward recommending closer integration of rural development and environmental policies into agricultural support mechanisms. In order that appropriate policies may be tailored to suit the diversity of climatic and geographical situations covered by the CAP, it was stressed that considerable flexibility should be left, in order that local decisions, e.g. investments in local infrastructure, subsidies for direct marketing and processing, subsidies for investments outside agriculture or for the creation of tourism facilities etc., may be made at a local level.