Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises

Livestock farming systems in the French Alps are particularly exposed to the predicted climate change and most of them have already experienced periods of drought since the beginning of the 2000s. Faced with this risk, livestock farmers have put in place a certain number of measures and envisage int...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baptiste Nettier, Laurent Dobremez, Jean-Luc Coussy, Thomas Romagny
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut de Géographie Alpine 2011-01-01
Series:Revue de Géographie Alpine
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/rga/1294
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841546664187265024
author Baptiste Nettier
Laurent Dobremez
Jean-Luc Coussy
Thomas Romagny
author_facet Baptiste Nettier
Laurent Dobremez
Jean-Luc Coussy
Thomas Romagny
author_sort Baptiste Nettier
collection DOAJ
description Livestock farming systems in the French Alps are particularly exposed to the predicted climate change and most of them have already experienced periods of drought since the beginning of the 2000s. Faced with this risk, livestock farmers have put in place a certain number of measures and envisage introducing others in the future. For the present study, surveys were conducted among livestock farmers to identify these measures and analyses were carried out to characterise the attitudes of livestock farmers to drought conditions and to evaluate changes in the sensitivity of their livestock farming systems. With the exception of those farms with extensive irrigated areas, all the farms are seeking solutions to deal with the risks arising from droughts. One solution is to purchase fodder to compensate for the decrease in the harvests that normally provide animal feed in the winter; the amounts purchased vary with the length of wintering required. For the grazing periods, the high mountain livestock breeders and the dairy systems of the Northern Alps rely above all on extending and over-sizing the pasture areas in relation to the needs of the herds. The livestock farms of the Southern Alps also rely on the diversity of vegetation areas and a certain flexibility in the practices used to adapt to conditions experienced during the year. A succession of dry years could result in more radical breakdowns in the livestock systems. It should also be remembered that climate change is only one of the factors influencing the types of changes taking place on farms.
format Article
id doaj-art-7bf6eb84c20941ad8121f375363fc49b
institution Kabale University
issn 0035-1121
1760-7426
language English
publishDate 2011-01-01
publisher Institut de Géographie Alpine
record_format Article
series Revue de Géographie Alpine
spelling doaj-art-7bf6eb84c20941ad8121f375363fc49b2025-01-10T15:55:57ZengInstitut de Géographie AlpineRevue de Géographie Alpine0035-11211760-74262011-01-0198410.4000/rga.1294Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaisesBaptiste NettierLaurent DobremezJean-Luc CoussyThomas RomagnyLivestock farming systems in the French Alps are particularly exposed to the predicted climate change and most of them have already experienced periods of drought since the beginning of the 2000s. Faced with this risk, livestock farmers have put in place a certain number of measures and envisage introducing others in the future. For the present study, surveys were conducted among livestock farmers to identify these measures and analyses were carried out to characterise the attitudes of livestock farmers to drought conditions and to evaluate changes in the sensitivity of their livestock farming systems. With the exception of those farms with extensive irrigated areas, all the farms are seeking solutions to deal with the risks arising from droughts. One solution is to purchase fodder to compensate for the decrease in the harvests that normally provide animal feed in the winter; the amounts purchased vary with the length of wintering required. For the grazing periods, the high mountain livestock breeders and the dairy systems of the Northern Alps rely above all on extending and over-sizing the pasture areas in relation to the needs of the herds. The livestock farms of the Southern Alps also rely on the diversity of vegetation areas and a certain flexibility in the practices used to adapt to conditions experienced during the year. A succession of dry years could result in more radical breakdowns in the livestock systems. It should also be remembered that climate change is only one of the factors influencing the types of changes taking place on farms.https://journals.openedition.org/rga/1294forage systemlivestock systemagricultural practicesdroughtresilience
spellingShingle Baptiste Nettier
Laurent Dobremez
Jean-Luc Coussy
Thomas Romagny
Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
Revue de Géographie Alpine
forage system
livestock system
agricultural practices
drought
resilience
title Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
title_full Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
title_fullStr Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
title_full_unstemmed Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
title_short Attitudes des éleveurs et sensibilité des systèmes d'élevage face aux sécheresses dans les Alpes françaises
title_sort attitudes des eleveurs et sensibilite des systemes d elevage face aux secheresses dans les alpes francaises
topic forage system
livestock system
agricultural practices
drought
resilience
url https://journals.openedition.org/rga/1294
work_keys_str_mv AT baptistenettier attitudesdeseleveursetsensibilitedessystemesdelevagefaceauxsecheressesdanslesalpesfrancaises
AT laurentdobremez attitudesdeseleveursetsensibilitedessystemesdelevagefaceauxsecheressesdanslesalpesfrancaises
AT jeanluccoussy attitudesdeseleveursetsensibilitedessystemesdelevagefaceauxsecheressesdanslesalpesfrancaises
AT thomasromagny attitudesdeseleveursetsensibilitedessystemesdelevagefaceauxsecheressesdanslesalpesfrancaises