This webinar explores how a group of upland dairy farmers in the French Massif Central and crop farmers in Romania are planning and changing their practices to create a more resilient future for their farms.
Speakers: Bertrand Dumont, INRAE (France) and Cristiana Necula, Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)
Of interest to
- an arable or grassland-based farmer or advisor interested in hearing how both lowland and upland farmers are creating climate-resilient systems
- involved in research about how farmers are preparing changing weather conditions
- a teacher of agriculture in a college or university
By the end of the webinar, you will learn about
- how farmers are thinking about future climate adaptation and mitigation, based on geographical areas and farm types
- the science demonstrating the importance of lowland plains and upland landscapes for biodiversity
- the threats and opportunities to lowland plains and upland grasslands and their ecosystems
Research-based analysis
Climate change makes grassland-based production systems more vulnerable because it disrupts the yearly forage supply and makes its availability more unpredictable. Using various research models [1], we are able to analyse how grassland-based farmers’ perceptions modulate how they adapt to climate change in French Massif central.
On the productive southern lowland plains in Romanian, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 years. Farmers were asked about a variety of changes they had made or were planning, to build a picture showing which measures were the most likely to succeed, from field scale to a whole farm redesign [2].
Geographical context
This webinar offers insight into farmers’ strategies for climate-resistant change, and how these tend to vary along geographical lines.
For example, farmers in the northern Massif Central and southern uplands highlighted the values of permanent grasslands and considered them central to their adaptation strategies. Conversely, farmers in the southern, hilly areas mostly saw little benefit in permanent grasslands, and based their adaptation strategies on temporary grasslands and forage crops instead [3].
Threats and opportunities for ecosystems
We also discuss how contrasting strategies can represent an opportunity for maintaining production levels while at the same time provide various ecosystem services and boost overall sustainability at landscape scale.
Recorded on 28 February 2025
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References:
[1] (i) Model of proactive private adaptation by Grothmann & Patt (2005) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.01.002
(ii) the integrated nature futures framework by Oostvogels et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10750
[2] Necula, C., Rossing W.A.H., Easdale, M.H., 2024. Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 44, 37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8
[3] Allart, L., Joly, F., Oostvogels, V., Mosnier, C., Gross, N., Ripoll-Bosch, R., Dumont, B., 2024. Farmers’ perceptions of permanent grasslands and their intentions to adapt to climate change influence their resilience strategy. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 39, e33. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170524000279