Participants to Metsovo

The James Hutton Institute

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Integrated economic development of rural communities engaged in livestock production.
Metsovo, Greece. 4th-5th July 1998

The Metsovo workshop will look at the implications for livestock systems as the CAP evolves away from farming support towards a broader policy of integrated rural development. How can LFA livestock systems best contribute to rural development ? What research is required to support the necessary changes in livestock systems ? How may livestock systems be valued in terms of their contribution to the total rural economy and cultural landscape ?

2. Trends and opportunities in technological development in animal production systems

5. Tourism and livestock production - contribution of traditional farming systems to regional images

6. Marginalisation and abandonment of land in the LFA - implications for regional development

sustainable resource use, responses to climate change, implications of Kyoto - carbon tax etc. ,

Integrated economic development of rural communities engaged in livestock production.

The workshop series of the LSIRD network has aimed to encourage a more co-ordinated approach from the research community to the problems encountered by livestock producers in the European LFAs. The meetings have served to highlight the “special case” of the LFAs, and of the importance to establish in these areas farming systems that will enable farming incomes to be maintained, but that will also be able to fulfil the increasing demands of other countryside users and policy makers for landscape and habitats, local industry and products, and employment.

The Agenda 2000 reform package of the CAP gives every indication that within the LFAs, future policies will place increased importance on rural development, sustainable farming and environmental management. Commodity prices for livestock and crops are likely to continue their downward trend, and this will put an increasing pressure on farmers and farmer’s co-operatives to seek out new markets for their products. Particularly in the LFAs, farmers need, where possible, to exploit niche markets by direct marketing, quality labelling, organic farming, or regional identification, to generate added value to their products.

The objective of the meeting held in Metsovo in June was to look at how these diverse issues in rural development can be addressed by future agricultural research, and to consider future interdisciplinary and vertically integrated (production chain) approaches to studying problems facing the economic development of livestock systems in the LFAs. Fifteen scientists from across Europe attended the one-day meeting, which was followed by a one-day field trip to see examples of rural development initiatives in north western Greece.

In the context of the Metsovo meeting, it was the crossover between livestock research issues, and those more normally thought to come within the realm of rural development, that were important. As, typically, agriculture in the LFAs is in decline, rural development initiatives for the most part have concentrated on providing alternative employment, such as in light industrial development, hi-tech industry, and teleworking. This in itself has strong implications for the livestock sector, as one result of this may be more part-time farmers, with their own special needs for livestock systems - simplicity and low labour requirements, and the skills and infrastructure needed to market high-value products. The development of more rural and agri-tourism will also have important implications for livestock systems, as will moves within rural development initiatives to develop the small-scale agri-food sector in rural areas. Agri-environment schemes may go some way towards mitigating the effects of diminishing direct production support. However, longer term viability and sustainability for these areas is likely to depend more on reconnecting the products from the land to developing and growing markets, such as for speciality and regional products, and a multi-disciplinary, vertically integrated agricultural - environmental - economic research approach.

The evolution of rural economies and farming systems will be influenced by changes in other areas of policy, such as the effects of reform of EU structural funds, the development path of acceding Eastern European countries, and increased subsidiarity in policy formulation / implementation.

The combined effects of such policy and political evolution, are complex to unravel, and will vary regionally. That livestock farmers are going to be under heavy financial pressure throughout the EU, however, is a certainty, and it was agreed that there is a pressing need for research to support efforts to achieve the simultaneous goals of improving regional development and at the same time preserving traditional farming skills and knowledge. The workshop heard of encouraging examples from Spain (Santiago Menéndez de Luarca, Consejo Superior Agrario), Greece (Dr Dimitris Katsaros, Institute of Mountain and Rural Economics) and the UK (Brian Angell ADAS), of projects within each country developing small scale regional agri-food industry in rural areas, using support under the 5b structural funds or the LEADER programme.
Whilst such examples (local cheese, dairy and wool products) exist and make a contribution to employment, they are operating in a small way, and individually have a limited impact on employment and regional development. It is however the small scale nature of such projects that contribute to the diversification of local industry, and help improve producer incomes, and retain the essential landscape and biodiversity of these areas, as well as attracting further development and inward investment in the region.

It is essential that the trend towards marginalisation and abandonment of land in the LFA is halted. This process is causing undesired changes in landscape, rural societies and severe damage to valued pastoral ecosystems. There are many imaginative and traditional examples around Europe of farmers using their endeavour to secure a place in the added value market using sustainable farming systems through on-farm diversification of farming enterprises, agri-tourism as well as integrated intersectoral (vertical) regional collaboration.

Research is required that will help farmers to develop a diverse range of responses to falling farm gate prices. Sustainable farming systems and the marketing of the products of these systems deserve particular attention, as well as strategies to manage and market the products of specific agri-ecosystems and cultural landscapes. Low input systems suitable for part-time farming are likely to be important, and need to be integrated with the development of alternative rural incomes, such as teleworking, and rural locations for “clean” industries. In the case of regions which may be spatially and conceptually differentiated from surrounding regions (for high landscape and tourism value) there are obvious market rewards for environmentally sensitive farming systems, but each region will need to develop its own strategy, appropriate for the individual level of agricultural and economic development of the region, for exploiting those rewards.