[en] Compared to other systems, intensive grass-based dairy systems are known to maximize their contribution to food availability, represented by the metric of net productivity. This study analysed whether these systems also have the highest stability of supply, another crucial dimension of food security. To represent this aspect, we used the annual production resilience indicator (Rp), especially developed for agricultural production data, on gross and net productivity based on accounting data from 79 specialised dairy systems in the Walloon region of Belgium from 2011 to 2020. We grouped the farms into three representative farm types using k-means clustering. The results indicated that the intensive grass-based type also had the highest net productivity resilience. While providing a lower mean net productivity, the extensive grass-based type is characterized by a higher net productivity resilience compared with the intensive maize-based type. The end of milk quotas in 2015 was associated with a decrease in the resilience of gross and net productivity for all farm types due to type-specific changes in farm characteristics. This analysis provides a benchmark for other animal production systems. Rp focuses on production resilience but could be integrated in wider assessments of socio-ecological resilience.
Disciplines :
Animal production & animal husbandry
Author, co-author :
Battheu-Noirfalise, Caroline ; Université de Liège - ULiège > TERRA Research Centre ; Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Rue du Serpont 100, Libramont, B-6800, Belgium. c.battheu@cra.wallonie.be
Zampieri, Matteo; King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955, Saudi Arabia
Froidmont, Eric; Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Rue du Serpont 100, Libramont, B-6800, Belgium
Stilmant, Didier; Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Rue du Serpont 100, Libramont, B-6800, Belgium
Beckers, Yves ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département GxABT > Animal Sciences (AS)
Language :
English
Title :
Quantifying the stability of food supply and assessing the impact of milk quota removal in Walloon specialized dairy systems.
The authors thank the Walloon Breeders Association (AWE) and the Walloon Department of Agricultural Economic Analysis for making their data available. The first author is a recipient of a Ph.D. grant financed by the Belgian \u201CFonds pour la formation \u00E0 la Recherche dans l\u2019Industrie et dans l\u2019Agriculture\u201D (FRIA). We are thankful to Michelle and Michael Corson for proofreading this manuscript and the R4D consortium for the insightful discussions that enriched this study.
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