Designing crop-livestock integration at different levels: Toward new agroecological models?

Integrated crop-livestock systems have been shown to improve nutrient cycling, particularly by re-coupling nitrogen and carbon cycles. Yet the number of mixed crop-livestock farms has been falling steadily in Europe. Integration between crops and livestock at the local level, through exchanges between already specialised farms, is rarely implemented. Given the lack of knowledge on new ways to maintain or to reintegrate crops and livestock from the farm up to the local level, concrete guidelines are needed. In this paper, we developed a transversal analysis of three complementary case studies regarding development of crop-livestock integration at the farm and beyond farm level. To this aim, we reviewed three French case studies in which participatory approaches were used to design scenarios of crop-livestock integration. When crop-livestock integration disappears from the farm level due to labour organisation, exchanges between specialised crop farmers and livestock farmers is a way to redevelop such integration at the local level. Transversal analysis of case-studies allowed us to suggest guidelines for further research regarding the design of agroecological crop-livestock integration. Articulating options of change at farm level and collective level allows to consider the appropriate level of design and trade-offs between (1) farm and beyond farm level, and (2) social, environmental and economic dimensions. Considering these different levels of organisation is needed to identify possible pathways to and policy incentives for integrated crop-livestock systems. Developing specific Decision Support Systems and participative research is needed to conceive locally adapted scenarios of crop-livestock integration.