Grazing4AgroEcology
Project aim
The Grazing4AgroEcology Project aims to promote grazing and to support grazing-based farms on their economic and ecologic performances as well as on animal welfare. The project has a European network with 15 participants from 8 member states: Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands and Romania.
Principles of agroecology
The project identified the principles of agroecology as:
- Adopting the management practices that improve animal health
- Reducing the inputs required for production
- Reducing pollution by optimising the biogeochemical functioning of farming systems
- Enhancing diversity within animal production systems to strengthen their resilience
- Preserving biodiversity in agro-ecosystems by adapting management practices
Project Objectives
There are four main objectives from the project:
- Implement a new approach to assess and optimise grazing-based farming in an integrated way based on agroecology so that it meets the demands in terms of economic, ecological and societal aspects, as well as animal welfare, triggering innovation through farmer’s self-assessment
- Capture the practice needs, tapping and sharing best agro ecological grazing practices via a partner-farm network and surveys
- Strengthen the grazing AKIS through the implementation of a cross-border infrastructure for co-creation, collaboration, cross-fertilisation and knowledge-exchange and for impacting on the mind-set of the future farmers generation
- Implement a Knowledge & Information Management System to persistently converge and sustainably deploy know-how and innovations
Irish Project Team:
Deirdre Hennessy and Micheal O Donovan – Work Package 2 Leaders
Caitlin Looney – Facilitator Agent
John Douglas – Facilitator Agent
Keep up to date with the Project:
Twitter - @HEurope_G4AE
Instagram - @teagascgrass10
For further information contact – Caitlin.Looney@teagasc.ie