GRANADA WORKSHOP REPORT 9.

Sustainability of production systems under different conditions.

Koldo Osoro

CIATA, Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain

Summary

Currently, there are many fashionable words, such as extensification, sustainability, biodiversity etc., used too frequently with little consideration of the actual situation. The degree of development in rural areas can vary greatly between areas, even over short distances. Such differences can obviously be even greater between regions or countries. Much of the variation can be attributed to the effects of different agricultural and rural policies.

While in some countries, the process of intensification was begun in the sixties and before, in others, especially those which joined the European Union late, the recent phase of agricultural intensification only began in the 1980s, and has also mainly been confined to the lowlands. Only limited intensification has taken place in upland and less-favoured areas. Extensification, therefore, may indeed be an appropriate alternative to improve economic and environmental sustainability in the developed, lowland situation. However, in areas which are already "less-favoured", including many common lands, with low-grade vegetation resources, calls to extensify production mean little more than "Please maintain your poor conditions and living standards". Even in fertile lowlands, extensification requires an adequate land base to maintain profitability, and this not always available.

Sustainability is in this context a more useful concept.

But how might it be possible to achieve sustainability in these less-favoured areas ? At least 5 conditions must be met:

• An appropriate animal species must be chosen
• The product must be defined
• There must be a well-developed grazing strategy
• Predators must be controlled
• Social conditions must be improved.

The availability of land and vegetation are the main factors limiting the number of animals and herd size. When large areas are available, extensive systems producing low-nutrient requiring products, such as wool and other fibres, may be appropriate, but where land availability is restricted, intensification is essential to achieve economic sustainability. Thus the level of intensification required to achieve economic sustainability is inversely related to the quantity x quality of available land and vegetation.

Figure 1. Undesirable evolution of land use

Figure 2 Sustainable evolution of land use

* This stage will be dependent on the availability of land

Table 1. Main limits to sustainability.

• Available land in uplands: quantity ?

quality low


lowlands: quantity low
quality high

• No land use planning (forestry, livestock)
  
• Lack of regulation on grazing management
  
• Uncontrolled predators (wolves)
  
• Changing social and living conditions

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