This paper presents a methodology to help decision-makers assess the environmental relevance of maintaining local livestock in their territories rather than relying on animal products imported from regions where production may be more efficient. Using the case of Reunion Island, we first conducted an attributional LCA to compare local and imported animal products, and second, a consequential territorial approach to assess the impacts of removing local livestock at the food system level. The attributional LCA showed that the impacts of imported animal products were lower than the impacts of local ones on global warming (-24%) and land use (-17%). However, the consequential territorial LCA showed that removing local livestock and relying on imports is not always environmentally beneficial, as the impacts depend largely on the fate of grassland. If current crops expand onto former grasslands, removing local livestock increases the impact of the food system on global warming by +3%, thereby contradicting the conclusions that could be drawn from attributional LCA alone. Other grassland conversion pathways were also tested, including return to natural vegetation, and the introduction of new crops to enhance crops-based food self-sufficiency. The consequential territorial approach accounts for effects of local livestock removal beyond the livestock sector itself and provides a systemic assessment of the role of local livestock in carbon storage and biomass recycling within the territory, by evaluating these services both in the presence and absence of local livestock.

The environmental impacts of livestock systems have been often under discussion in relation to their negative impacts to climate change. For several years, conventional assessments of such impacts have been preferably adapted and implemented on industrialized livestock systems. On the contrary, when applied to extensive systems such as pastoral ones, they have created distortions in the attribution of the related climate impacts. In the context of the in-depth studies on the topic conducted by the ERC research project PASTRES, several case studies of contextualized research on GHG emissions of three different pastoral systems in Africa, Asia and Europe were analyzed. Different assessment methodologies were compared, without or with the use of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Some limitations emerged from the analysis that concerned: 1) the analysis of emissions in a broader context/ecosystem-based approach 2) the definition of Functional Units 3) the provision of ecosystem services, with particular attention to biodiversity and the inclusion of C sequestration within the LCA calculation. These limitations penalize a complete and adequate estimate of environmental impacts and, consequently, a correct evaluation of implementation scenarios that aim to create conditions of greater sustainability of pastoral systems. The analysis suggests that the assessment of the impacts of pastoral systems, strongly characterized by land occupation, use of environmental resources, seasonal climate and social relations, requires a systemic approach that adapts and extends the LCA methodology, through the harmonization of alternative metrics based on both conventional LCA and the assessment of the social and nutritional implications of pastoral farming.

Farm animals are often lumped together into a single “livestock” entity, reduced to the production of milk and meat and accused of being the cause of major environmental disruptions. However, livestock farming systems are highly diverse, and the functions of livestock encompass multiple dimensions. Based on the methods of comparative agriculture and the quantification of animal labor energy on farms, we explore the changing roles of livestock in a semi-arid area of southern India from the 1950s to the present day. We provide a typology of farms that reveals the evolution of agronomic, economic, food and power supply functions of livestock according to the social diversity of farms of the study area. This study provides key insights to nuance livestock debates: (i) livestock serves a wide range of functions beyond mere food production, (ii) livestock remains necessary for agricultural production despite most agronomic and power supply functions having been impaired by motorized mechanization and the use of synthetic fertilizers, (iii) crop-livestock integration has declined at farm level but has strengthened between farms at area level, (iv) livestock is neither an attribute of the rich nor the poor. This research, therefore, highlights the complexity of livestock farming systems. It combines historical, biophysical, social and ethnographic perspectives with descriptions of unique livestock-related practices that could improve the sustainability of agriculture.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, dairy value chains’ stakeholders face many challenges and have expectations for change. Step-by-step innovation design methodologies and multi-stakeholder innovation platforms are implemented to drive changes desired by stakeholders. We assumed that combining these two approaches would reinforce the potentiality of achieving the changes. To the best of our knowledge, the specific mechanisms and actions involved in such a combination are poorly documented. This study contributes to fill this gap by reporting on modalities of engagement, collaboration, and change generation with stakeholders of dairy innovation platforms deriving from a step-by-step innovation design approach that is embedded within an overall loop-structure dynamic and accounting for three levels of stakeholders’ engagement. We applied this step-by-step approach as part of the “Africa-Milk project” on ten dairy innovation platforms located in four African countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Madagascar). The approach was led by a core team and applied adaptively across the various innovation platforms, according to both their organizational context and objectives. In this paper, we captured the lessons learned along the key implementation stages of the approach (i.e., engagement, action, and assessment) and regarding the type of stakeholders involved. Our results show that the initiation of the engagement highly depends on the pre-existence of an innovation platform. The action stage proceeds then through either cascading actions or parallel actions. Finally, the outcome assessment stage enables to identify different types of changes induced by the approach (i.e., changes in practices, interactions, capacities, and opinions). Owing to its adaptability, the overall loop-structure of the approach enables practical adjustments and reflexivity to best meet the needs of innovation platform stakeholders. This study paves the way to implement co-design of innovation approaches to broader multi-stakeholder platforms involved in agri-food system transformations.

CONTEXT: Livestock is often considered as a potential hub of circularity but evidence of circularity benefits for the sustainability of agro-food-waste systems (AFWS) is lacking in the literature. METHODS: This study assessed the consequences of livestock based circularity on nutrient and carbon management in the AFWS of an isolated tropical island. A substance flow analysis of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and carbon (C) cycles was conducted at the level of the AFWS of French Reunion Island. Eight livestock based circularity levers and their combinations, aimed at increasing recycling between sub-sectors, reducing losses at the sub-sector level, and adjusting inputs to needs at the sub-sector level, were compared to the baseline situation using four indicators: (i) N, P and C cycling indexes as circularity indicators, (ii) N and P use efficiency, (iv) N and P self-sufficiency and (iv) humified C inputs to cultivated soils as a proxy of potential additional C storage. RESULTS: Simulating livestock based scenarios improved the cycling index by from +0% to +17% depending on the substance and scenario considered. These increases in AFWS circularity were positively correlated with an increase in AFWS N and P use efficiency, but not necessarily with an increase in the humified C inputs to cultivated soils. The combination of all livestock based scenarios increased the AFWS N, P, and C cycling index by +12%, +17%, and +4% respectively, AFWS N and P use efficiency increased by respectively, +13% and +26%, and humified C inputs to cultivated soils by +6%. The study shows that the benefits of circularity levers differ with the substance and emphasizes the importance of considering multiple substances simultaneously to improve the accuracy of assessments of different management strategies. SIGNIFIANCE: This study provides a reference method to compare circularity strategies within AFWS and to assess their consequences for food system sustainability. In particular, the proposed method can help determine (i) the most effective strategies and (ii) the potential co-benefits or trade-offs between different strategies, depending on the substances considered.

Promoting smallholders’ sustainable development in Africa means addressing agronomic and economic factors but also highly relevant social influences shaping farmers’ production and affecting household well-being. Holistic, integrated analyses can help to meet this need, informing more effective policies and interventions for smallholder farming systems. The authors apply a transdisciplinary, quantitative approach to analyzing social impacts in the smallholder context, using milk-producing crop-livestock family farms in central Madagascar as a test case. First, stochastic frontier analysis is leveraged to confirm education as a social indicator linked to production efficiency. Then, linear regression is used for exploratory modeling of children’s educational outcomes. Findings from the Malagasy case emphasize the influence of rural infrastructure, parental education, chronic poverty, family planning, and crop-livestock diversification on children’s educational outcomes among one region’s farming households. Taken together, results suggest that Madagascar’s policymakers should consider comprehensive territorial planning for simultaneously promoting agricultural development and human well-being. This study illustrates how a transdisciplinary approach to social impacts analysis can integrate agronomic, economic, and social dynamics and help anticipate potential outcomes in support of smallholders’ sustainable development.

Soil fertility degradation is a major stake in sub-Saharan Africa. Strong population growth, local demand for food and land scarcity are likely to increase this phenomenon. While mineral fertilizers are little used, particularly in Madagascar, soil fertility management is therefore largely dependent on organic fertilizers produced on the farm. In order to increase the efficiency of nutrient recycling at farm level, it is necessary to understand the factors that contribute to improved manure management practices. This study proposes to analyze the relationships between the structure of farms integrating crop and livestock in the Vakinankaratra region (Highlands of Madagascar) and their manure management practices. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on 300 farms. Then, a farm typology was built through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Seven farm types were identified, distinguishing dairy farms from other agri-livestock farms (zebus, pigs). A Chi(2) test indicates a significant effect of farm structure on effluent management methods. In particular, the presence of dairy and pig farming within farms seems to favor improved manure management. The cluster analysis contributes to understanding the adoption of improved biomass management practices by crop-livestock farming systems. The adoption of such practices is a prerequisite for improving nutrients recycling from animals to agricultural plots, and thus improving the sustainability of farms in the Vakinankaratra Highlands.

A carbon footprint assessment, combining various scales of analysis and including a territorial assessment, is proposed to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from crops and livestock in an Indian village impacted by both Green (for crops) and White (for milk) revolutions. It is based on the GHG assessment of 10 cropping systems, 8 livestock farming systems and 9 production systems using the comparative agriculture and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches. Results show that mineral fertilisation, irrigation and methane from paddy fields are the main drivers of emissions at plot level. Livestock farming systems emit from 4.7 tCO2eq/female to 8.6 tCO2eq/female, enteric fermentation being the first source of emission. Disparities at farm level are huge, ranging from 9 to 733 tCO2eq. At village level, emissions yield 37 tCO2eq/ha and livestock contributes to 60 % of GHG emissions. The high GHG emissions are a legacy of the Green and White Revolutions: the livestock population is high, fed on highly emissive fodder and concentrates and produces little milk. The results enhance our understanding of the share of carbon emissions from crops and livestock at farm and territorial level. They pinpoint the environmental and socio-economic downsides of livestock farming intensification.

La dégradation de la fertilité des sols est un problème majeur en Afrique subsaharienne. La forte croissance démographique, la demande locale de nourriture et la réduction des terres arables disponibles risquent d’accroître ce phénomène. Alors que les engrais minéraux sont peu utilisés, notamment à Madagascar, la gestion de la fertilité des sols est largement dépendante des matières organiques produites à la ferme. Afin d’augmenter l’efficacité du recyclage des nutriments à l’échelle de la ferme, il est nécessaire de comprendre les facteurs favorables à l’amélioration des pratiques de gestion des effluents d’élevage. Cette étude propose d’analyser les relations entre la structure d’exploitations agricoles intégrant agriculture et élevage dans la région de Vakinankaratra (Hautes Terres de Madagascar) et leurs pratiques de gestion des effluents. Des entretiens semi-directifs ont été réalisés auprès de 300 exploitations. Une typologie a été réalisée à l’aide d’une analyse en composantes principales (ACP). Sept types d’exploitation ont été retenus, permettant de distinguer des exploitations laitières d’autres exploitations d’agro-élevage (bovins de trait, porcs). Un test de Khi2 indique un effet significatif de la structure des exploitations sur le mode de gestion des effluents. En particulier, la présence d’un élevage laitier et de porcins semble favoriser des modes de gestion améliorés. L’analyse typologique contribue à la compréhension de l’adoption de pratiques améliorées de gestion des biomasses par les agro-éleveurs. L’adoption de telles pratiques est un prérequis pour améliorer le recyclage des nutriments vers les parcelles agricoles, et donc améliorer la durabilité des exploitations agricoles des Hautes Terres du Vakinankaratra.

Increasing nutrient circularity and use efficiency is a leading topic in the search for more sustainable agri-food-waste systems (AFWS). This paper proposes a method to assess the role of crops and livestock in nutrient circularity and use efficiency in an AFWS. The method is based on the analysis of nutrient flows, a detailed typology of flows, and a set of 3 groups of indicators to characterize (i) circularity between sub-systems, (ii) the process efficiency of the sub-systems and (iii) the efficiency of the AFWS. The method is illustrated using the nitrogen metabolism of the AFWS of a tropical Island, French Reunion Island. The island's current nitrogen use efficiency is very low (0.7%). Crops and livestock are major sources of inefficiencies due to their processes, they account for respectively, 42% and 9% of total AFWS inefficiency. However, crops and livestock are involved in circularity, as they play, respectively, a recycling receiver and recycling supplier role. Among the internal recycling routes between all sub-systems, 41% go to crops and 31% come from livestock. The paper argues that circularity and process efficiency are not objectives per se but means to achieve AFWS efficiency, and that the distinction between these three elements enable a systemic multi-level understanding of the roles of crops and livestock.