The development of dairy sector remains a priority in Mediterranean countries. The present project proposed by multidisciplinary consortium of 5 partners aims to characterize dairy chain in North Africa (Algeria and Egypt) focusing on dairy cattle sector and in Europe (Greece) focusing on cattle, sheep and goat dairy sectors. Many dairy actors will be actively involved through the current project. The main farming practices information in feed management and milking, storage, transport and processing will be analyzed to identify the different gaps that constraint dairy supply chain and set up a guideline of best farming practices for farmers. Moreover, quality and safety of milk and/or dairy products will be assessed by analyzing physico-chemical parameters, microbiologic profile, mycotoxins, somatic cell count and organic contaminants. In addition, several new technologies will be introduced and tested in North Africa to improve cattle dairy performance and milk processing. The outcome of the project will be benefit for all dairy actors by promoting changes in farms, milk dairy centers and milk processing units.

The objective of ADAPT-HERD is to develop management simulation tools to implement innovative strategies for resilience and efficiency (R&E) in small ruminants herds, based on harnessing animal adaptive capacities. These tools will address a wide range of current feed resource constraints in the Mediterranean area (Egypt, France, Spain and Tunisia) and the future perturbations induced by climate change. The locally tailored management solutions will improve the ability of livestock systems to adapt to climate change by: i) managing early-life nutrition to safeguard adult adaptive capacities; ii) managing reproduction to find the best match between feed supply and herd demand; iii) tailoring group feeding strategies depending on animals’ adaptive capacities and iv) managing herd demography with replacement and culling to adjust feed demand. To achieve this, ADAPT-HERD brings together information from animal and herd levels with: i) a fine-grained experimental approach (adaptive mechanisms and trade-offs); ii) field phenotyping of local breeds (adaptation to local conditions) and iii) local production environment characterization. These multi-level information will be used to develop computer models and test scenarios. Interfacing and disseminating project’s deliverables as a user-friendly toolbox will be achieved with a participatory modelling framework. The toolbox will help to adapt agricultural practices to change in resource availability by proposing different technical solutions of herd management aimed at facing feed resource perturbations induced by climate change. The challenge is not to find an optimal strategy for R&E, but to explore how management strategies impact the relationship between R&E. These strategies will be grounded in a deep understanding of how local breeds adapt to feed resource constraints. They will be complementary to on-going projects that focus on genetic selection and breeding solutions to improve R&E in small ruminants.

Agriculture in the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly a challenging sector that’s shaped by climate change. TRUSTFARM will use Climate-Smart Farm Practices (CSFPs) that cope with climate change. Core challenges in the case studies will be identified by their climate impact variability on food security. In cooperation with stakeholders, TRUSTFARM will develop Multi-Stakeholder Innovation Platforms (MIPs) to prioritise and select the best-fit innovative CSFPs for each case study. A toolbox of innovative pathways will be developed that contains the following: 1) Identification and promotion of food crops with high yielding germplasm that are resistant to heat and disease; 2) Soil and water conservation to improve productive capacity; 3) Adoption of best practices in ruminant husbandry. TRUSTFARM will design integrated agro-ecosystems based on the selected pathways with on-farm trials. The environmental and economic impacts of the designed systems will be assessed using Life Cycle Analysis. To increase and diversify farmers’ income, two business models will be developed:1) Reduce Reuse Recycle (RRR) to produce high-quality compost; 2) Dairy and meat products and wool from small ruminants. TRUSTFARM will select one or both business models according to the needs of each case study with the stakeholders through the MIPs. Expected results: i) A strong EU and African partnership for R&I to achieve the goals of sustainability and food security; ii) A Better understanding of the impact of climate change in the case-study countries; iii) Improved capacity building among farmers’ and stakeholders’ with better coordination of the targeted value chains; iv) Improved soil and water quality and thus productivity with efficient use of inputs; v) Enhanced farmers' incomes and a boosting of the rural economy as well as consumers’ nutrition; vi) Dissemination of the integrated agro-ecosystem and CSFPs through social media, taking advantage of farmers’ smartphone usage.

TransIndiandairy addresses technical, organisational and institutional levers to upscale agroecological transitions. It does it by developing a multiscale framework on institutional resources regime guiding the analysis (both qualitative and quantitative) and supporting the integration of results. Indian dairy systems are chosen as case study for their local and international importance and for the unprecedented scale of their transition. Concretely, the team of 12 social and biotechnical scientists will analyse the coevolution between the business models involved in the production, processing and marketing of dairy products in three Indian states (WP1) and the multiscale governance of the transitions (WP2). It will also assess the systems multidimensional performance (matter and energy flows, value creation and distribution, resilience) (WP3). Project outcomes will be both scientific (articles, report, PhD) and operational (unlocking, knowledge spreading, scientific cooperation).