La multifonctionnalité des prairies en France: I. Les fonctions de production

Abstract

Analysis of grassland multi-functionality requires that the whole supply chain which grasslands belong to be taken into account. In the first section this paper presents changes in acreage of grasslands and forage crops as well as in the number of herbivore heads which occurred in France over the last two centuries with a focus on the last decades. An increased acreage of annual forage crops, a strong decline of perennial forage legumes and a reduction in permanent grasslands are the main changes which occurred over the last decades. Numbers of sheep and dairy cows decreased while the number of suckling cows increased leading to modifications in the type of grasslands and forage crops and in their management regimes. It also induced changes in the location of the animal production and a specialisation of the territories. Using systemic analysis of the supply chain in France, three functions were identified as being major for all stakeholders. The paper will focus on the production functions. The first of them is the contribution of animal farms to economic performance, and more specifically to the balance between farmer income and workload. This function is a continuation of the biomass production function which was traditionally assigned to grasslands. The second function is the contribution to quality of animal products which secures their access to markets and a satisfactory answer to consumer expectations. Quality includes nutritional composition, taste and image. This analysis underlines the contribution of grasslands to farm economic performance on the one hand with an increasing concern paid to workload. On the other hand, their implication in product quality emphasizes the need to take them into account in numerous production specifications.