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International audience; Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection can be acute and benign or evolve to chronic hepatitis with rapid progression toward cirrhosis or liver failure in humans. Hence, Hepatitis E (HE) disease is a major public health concern. In countries where pig populations are highly contaminated with HEV, human cases of HE are mainly foodborne, occurring frequently after consumption of raw or undercooked pork products or liver. Among factors associated to the presence of HEV in pork livers from intensive rearing systems, early slaughter (≤6 months) seems to be major. In Corsica, local pigs are raised in extensive farming systems and slaughtered after 12 months. To evaluate if slaughter of pigs over 12 months reduces the risk of HEV presence in livers, 1 197 liver samples were randomly collected in 2 Corsican slaughterhouses. Presence of HEV RNA was detected in liver and HEV seroprevalence was determined in paired serum. The sampling included 1,083 livers from animals between 12 and 48 months and 114 livers from animals < 12 months. The samples were predominantly from semi-extensive and extensive farms (n = 1 ,154). Estimated HEV seroprevalence was high, > 88% and HEV RNA prevalence in adult pig livers (>12-month-old) was low 0.18 %. However, in livers from younger animals (< 12 months), including piglets below 6-month-old, 5.3% (6/114) of the samples were positive for HEV RNA. Sequences recovered from positive livers belonged to HEV genotype 3c and 3f. The presence of infectious HEV was confirmed in 2 livers by the detection of HEV replication in HepaRG cell cultures. Thus, this study, demonstrates the low prevalence of HEV in livers of pigs over 12 months, even in farms with high HEV circulation. This observation may open new perspectives on the preferential use of livers from animals older than 12 months in raw pork liver products.

Livestock farming sector significantly contributes to sustainable food security in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides income and employment to a large segment of rural population in the countries of the Sahel such as Mauritania which face frequent climatic shocks. Keeping livestock also improves the availability of animal-source food for household consumption. In this study, we assess the role of livestock ownership and stock size in reducing severe food insecurity in rural Mauritania using data from a recent nationally representative household survey. We construct a food security index based on responses to the twelve questions asked in the survey, and use instrumental variables to correct for endogeneity problems. Our results suggest that livestock can have a positive role in improving food security in rural Mauritania. Compared to an agricultural household, the probability of being food insecure is 23.6% lower in a livestock-farming household for all types of livestock. Ownership of large (cows and camels) and small (goat and sheep) ruminants is associated with 16.3% and 21.6% greater probability of escaping from severe food insecurity. There is also some evidence for the size effect. A 1% increase in stock size (measured in tropical units) is associated with about 10% lower level of severe food insecurity among rural farm households. The beneficial contribution of livestock in insuring household food security is particularly visible among poor households. The results also show that livestock diversification has an important effect on the food security of households which practice this adaptation strategy to improve their food security. Helping farm households improve and expand their animal stock can therefore provide an answer to the challenges arising from multiple climatic and economic shocks and thus reduce severe food insecurity in the rural areas.; L'élevage contribue de manière significative à la sécurité alimentaire durable dans de nombreux pays. Il fournit des revenus et des emplois aux producteurs à la majorité des populations rurales dans les pays en développement, notamment au Sahel où elles sont confrontées à des problèmes climatiques et environnementaux fréquents. Ce document évalue la contribution de la détention ainsi que le stock des bétails à la réduction de la grave insécurité alimentaire en utilisant les données d'une récente enquête auprès des ménages représentatifs au niveau national. Nous construisons un indice de sécurité alimentaire en basant sur les réponses aux douze questions posées dans l’enquête, et utilisons des variables instrumentales pour corriger les problèmes d'endogénéité. Nos résultats suggèrent que l'élevage peut avoir un rôle positif dans l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire en Mauritanie rurale. Le niveau de l'insécurité alimentaire grave d’un ménage qui détient des bétails (mesuré par le stock mesuré en unités tropicales) est 10% inférieur à celui d’un ménage qui ne possède pas les bétails. La probabilité d’être en situation d’insécurité alimentaire est 23.6% inferieur pour un ménage éleveur tous types d'animaux confondus par rapport à un ménage agricole. De plus, un ménage rural mauritanien détenteur de gros et petit ruminant, a la probabilité de sortir de l'insécurité alimentaire grave de 16.3% et 21,6% respectivement. La détention du bétail améliore la disponibilité des aliments de source animale destinés à la consommation des ménages. Nous trouvons que les petits ruminants sont importants pour fournir des nutriments et une diversité alimentaire, soit par la consommation directe ou soit par la vente. Ces résultats soulignent l’importance des petits ruminants comme les chèvres et les moutons dans l’adaptation des ménages face aux chocs climatiques pour maintenir un niveau de sécurité alimentaire acceptable. Les résultats montrent également que la diversification de l'élevage a un effet important sur l’amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire des ménages qui pratiquent cette stratégie d’adaptation pour améliorer leur sécurité alimentaire. Nous suggérons que le fait de donner aux ménages ruraux les moyens de développer l'élevage pourrait apporter une réponse aux multiples chocs auxquels les populations rurales sont confrontées et ainsi réduire l'insécurité alimentaire grave dans ces zones.

Livestock farming sector significantly contributes to sustainable food security in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides income and employment to a large segment of rural population in the countries of the Sahel such as Mauritania which face frequent climatic shocks. Keeping livestock also improves the availability of animal-source food for household consumption. In this study, we assess the role of livestock ownership and stock size in reducing severe food insecurity in rural Mauritania using data from a recent nationally representative household survey. We construct a food security index based on responses to the twelve questions asked in the survey, and use instrumental variables to correct for endogeneity problems. Our results suggest that livestock can have a positive role in improving food security in rural Mauritania. Compared to an agricultural household, the probability of being food insecure is 23.6% lower in a livestock-farming household for all types of livestock. Ownership of large (cows and camels) and small (goat and sheep) ruminants is associated with 16.3% and 21.6% greater probability of escaping from severe food insecurity. There is also some evidence for the size effect. A 1% increase in stock size (measured in tropical units) is associated with about 10% lower level of severe food insecurity among rural farm households. The beneficial contribution of livestock in insuring household food security is particularly visible among poor households. The results also show that livestock diversification has an important effect on the food security of households which practice this adaptation strategy to improve their food security. Helping farm households improve and expand their animal stock can therefore provide an answer to the challenges arising from multiple climatic and economic shocks and thus reduce severe food insecurity in the rural areas.; L'élevage contribue de manière significative à la sécurité alimentaire durable dans de nombreux pays. Il fournit des revenus et des emplois aux producteurs à la majorité des populations rurales dans les pays en développement, notamment au Sahel où elles sont confrontées à des problèmes climatiques et environnementaux fréquents. Ce document évalue la contribution de la détention ainsi que le stock des bétails à la réduction de la grave insécurité alimentaire en utilisant les données d'une récente enquête auprès des ménages représentatifs au niveau national. Nous construisons un indice de sécurité alimentaire en basant sur les réponses aux douze questions posées dans l’enquête, et utilisons des variables instrumentales pour corriger les problèmes d'endogénéité. Nos résultats suggèrent que l'élevage peut avoir un rôle positif dans l'amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire en Mauritanie rurale. Le niveau de l'insécurité alimentaire grave d’un ménage qui détient des bétails (mesuré par le stock mesuré en unités tropicales) est 10% inférieur à celui d’un ménage qui ne possède pas les bétails. La probabilité d’être en situation d’insécurité alimentaire est 23.6% inferieur pour un ménage éleveur tous types d'animaux confondus par rapport à un ménage agricole. De plus, un ménage rural mauritanien détenteur de gros et petit ruminant, a la probabilité de sortir de l'insécurité alimentaire grave de 16.3% et 21,6% respectivement. La détention du bétail améliore la disponibilité des aliments de source animale destinés à la consommation des ménages. Nous trouvons que les petits ruminants sont importants pour fournir des nutriments et une diversité alimentaire, soit par la consommation directe ou soit par la vente. Ces résultats soulignent l’importance des petits ruminants comme les chèvres et les moutons dans l’adaptation des ménages face aux chocs climatiques pour maintenir un niveau de sécurité alimentaire acceptable. Les résultats montrent également que la diversification de l'élevage a un effet important sur l’amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire des ménages qui pratiquent cette stratégie d’adaptation pour améliorer leur sécurité alimentaire. Nous suggérons que le fait de donner aux ménages ruraux les moyens de développer l'élevage pourrait apporter une réponse aux multiples chocs auxquels les populations rurales sont confrontées et ainsi réduire l'insécurité alimentaire grave dans ces zones.

It has been widely asserted that a high grazing pressure has led to a reduction in vegetation production at decadal time scales, implying land degradation, in African drylands, and in the Sahel in particular. We test this hypothesis by analyzing spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation production in the northwestern Ferlo in Senegal. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) patterns, here used to represent vegetation production, were determined on the basis of Earth observation MODIS and PROBA‐V data. Furthermore, woody cover was assessed by very high spatial resolution (VHR) imagery. Because livestock is concentrated around deep wells in the dry season for watering, while for management they concentrate daily around pastoral family settlements or camps all year round, we studied the dependence of NDVI on distance from deep wells and camps. Locations of wells and camps were determined by visual inspection of VHR images. We found that 'inverse grazing gradients,' defined as decreasing NDVI/production with increasing distance, dominated both around wells and camps. Further, we found neither decrease nor increase in woody cover with distance to wells. Both positive and negative trends in wet season NDVI over the period 2000–2016 were identified within the study area, yet temporal trends were predominantly positive in proximity to deep wells. Around pastoral camps, positive NDVI trends were generally elevated relative to the regional average. The results question the validity of claims that high grazing pressure causes land degradation at the landscape scale, yet they show that grazing does lead to substantial spatial redistribution of vegetation production.

CONTEXT: Livestock farming is a major factor in the balance or disruption of bio-geochemical cycles, climate and biodiversity. The Brazilian Amazon is emblematic of these tensions between livestock production and environment. Extensive cattle production has spearheaded the territorial conquest of this region for more than 50 years, and is the main cause of deforestation. The intensification of animal production is presented as a success factor for long-term maintenance of low deforestation and a good level of production. Yet in reality there is no guarantee of this outcome, and very few studies focus on quantifying the effective intensification of the Amazonian livestock sector, and its impact on deforestation. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our article is to characterize and discuss the evolution of livestock farming in Paragominas (Brazil). This municipality is presented as an example of sustainable agrarian transition in the Amazon. After several decades with one of the highest rates of Amazon deforestation, Paragominas reduced its annual deforestation rate tenfold between 2005 and 2012. METRHODS: We analyse the livestock sector, using the method of territorial metabolism. The first step consisted in making an inventory of all material flows and all areas used either directly or indirectly by livestock farming. We calculate productive and environmental indicators' trends from 1990 to 2012 (intensity, production, efficiency, self-sufficiency, deforestation and N surplus). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We observe an extensive farming system with low density (between 0.47 and 0.83 LU/ha), low production (between 0.97 and 1.48 kg N/ha/year), low efficiency, but a large degree of self-sufficiency (exceeding 95%), and very low N surplus per hectare (between 14 and 16 kg N/ha/year). Ruminants account for 98% of all Livestock Units (LU) and over 95% of animal production. The selected indicators to characterize the intensity of farming systems are divergent: indicators expressed per unit area show extensification, with a decrease in animal density, inputs per ha and a stabilization of production per ha. However, production per animal unit and livestock efficiency increase across the study period. SIGNIFICANCE: The increase in animal production and efficiency was not related to the decrease in deforestation. The increased oversight of land use, along with strict policies, enabled the cessation of deforestation, but this did not result in the intensification of livestock farming for the moment. Our study shows that there is significant potential to increase livestock production and efficiency.

Cet article propose d'utiliser l'expérimentation des choix pour guider la conception d'un Paiement pour services environnementaux (PSE) visant la conservation d'un bassin versant dominé par des pâturages collectifs. L'application empirique concerne le bassin versant du Mgoun, au sud-est du Maroc. L'acceptabilité individuelle de différentes mesures de conservation et d'incitation est analysée. Les résultats montrent que la combinaison de mesures de conservation individuelles et collectives sous un mode de souscription individuel soumis à des conditions, et l'incitation sous la forme d'une assistance technique sont des voies pouvant faciliter la mise en oeuvre de PSE et encourager l'action collective en faveur de la conservation des pâturages en bien commun.

Environmental assessment of pig production systems using local breeds remains poorly documented in the literature. So far, studies did not account for specificities of outdoor rearing which is quite common in such systems. The present study aimed at evaluating the environmental impacts of pig production systems using local breeds in Europe, while accounting for emissions associated to consumption of grass and mitigation of impacts through soil-C sequestration. Environmental impacts were estimated for 48 farms using local pig breeds: 25 in France (Gascon breed), eight in Italy (Mora Romagnola breed) and 15 in Slovenia (Krskopolje breed). Assessment was performed with and without accounting for pasture-intake emissions and potential soil-C sequestration. The data were obtained from on-farm surveys. Systems with Gascon pigs had the lowest impacts per kg of live weight for global warming and cumulative energy demand, due to lower impacts of feeds. Acidification potential was higher for Krskopolje pigs due to high dietary crude protein content and high AP of feeds, while eutrophication potential was higher for Gascon pigs due to higher phosphorus content of feeds (28% higher than the mean of the other farms). When impacts were expressed per ha of land use, pig production in Gascon farms had the lowest impacts due to more available area per pig, except for eutrophication. Low contribution of soil-C sequestration to climate change mitigation was observed (4.7% on average). However, it may have a substantial contribution for the most extensive pig systems using large land surfaces. Emissions resulting from grazing had a rather low contribution to Global Warming Potential (4%) and Eutrophication (3%), but a substantial one to Acidification impact (9% on average). In the frame of our study, the contribution of emissions related to grazing is moderate because commercial feed supply for outdoor pigs was higher than in extensive systems studied in literature. This study highlighted that main hotspots include feed composition and supply and the origin of feed ingredients. It also suggests that future assessments of extensive pig systems relying on pig foraging on grasslands or rangelands should account for soil-C sequestration and emissions associated to grazing and foraging.

La filière Noir de Bigorre (NB) valorise des porcs de race pure Gascon en viandes et jambon sec (AOC/AOP). Les animaux élevés en conditions extensives (pâturage, 20 porcs/ha) consomment selon la saison de l’herbe, des glands ou autres fruits en complément d’un aliment conventionnel. La variabilité des ressources alimentaires et des conditions climatiques peut influencer la croissance des animaux, la composition et la qualité de la viande et des produits transformés. Cette étude visait à caractériser les niveaux moyens et la variabilité des produits AOC NB selon la saison de finition. Des porcs mâles castrés gascons ont été abattus en fin d’hiver (Répétition 1, R1, n = 25), printemps (R2, n = 23) ou automne (R3, n = 28) à environ 170 kg (14 mois). La saison n’influence pas la vitesse de croissance et modifie peu la composition corporelle (adiposité légèrement accrue en hiver). La viande des porcs R2 et R3 présente un pH ultime plus élevé (Longissimus, Gluteus), une couleur plus rouge et moins claire (Longissimus) et une teneur en lipides intramusculaires (Gluteus) plus élevée, comparé aux porcs R1 (P < 0,01), mais la texture de la viande n’est pas modifiée. La saison associée aux ressources disponibles influence la composition lipidique. Les teneurs en acides gras polyinsaturés n-3 (Gluteus, bardière) et vitamine E sont supérieures chez les porcs R2 relativement aux porcs R1 et R3 (P < 0,05), illustrant l’effetfavorable du pâturage sur la valeur nutritionnelle des produits. Ces résultats associés aux qualités sensorielles du jambon sec permettront aux acteurs de la filière d’adapter leurs pratiques d’élevage afin de continuer à améliorer les qualités et différencierleurs produits au sein de l’AOC., The Noir de Bigorre (NB) chain produces fresh pork and dry cured ham (PDO) from Gascon purebred pigs. Depending on the season, animals reared under extensive conditions (pasture, 20 pigs/ha) consume grass, acorns and other fruits in addition to conventional feed. Variability in food resources and climatic conditions can influence pig growth and the composition and quality of meat and processed products. This study aimed to characterise average levels and variability of NB PDO products according to pig finishing season. Gascon castrated males were slaughtered at the end of winter (Replicate 1, R1, n = 25), spring (R2, n = 23) or fall (R3, n = 28) at about 170 kg (14 months). The season did not influence growth rate and had little effect on body composition (slight increase in fatness in winter). The meat from R2 and R3 pigs had higher ultimate pH (Longissimus, Gluteus), redder and lighter colour (Longissimus) and higher intramuscular fat content (Gluteus) than that from R1 pigs (P < 0.01), whereas the texture was not modified. The season associated with available feeding resources influenced the lipid composition. The levels of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Gluteus, backfat) and vitamin E were higher in R2 than in R1 and R3 pigs (P < 0.05), illustrating the positive effect of grazing on the nutritional value of products. With these results and the forthcoming sensory qualities of dry cured ham, actors of the NB chain could adapt their breeding practices to improve the qualities further and differentiate the products within the PDO specifications.

Spécialisation régionale et développement de l’élevage extensif ne génèrent pas une uniformisation des systèmes de production. Au contraire, la diversité des situations rencontrées est maintenant très grande. Le jeu combiné des facteurs de différenciation provoque un accroissement significatif des inégalités de développement, faisant de cet ensemble de transformations un processus aux multiples facettes. Tandis que les moyens et grands propriétaires adoptent un système d’élevage extensif néce...

Figure 1. La région des Terres Chaudes sur le Tropique Sec mexicain. La dépression du Río Balsas, dans le sud-est de l'État du Michoacán, est longtemps restée une région enclavée, insérée entre deux massifs montagneux culminant à plus de 3 000 mètres, l’axe volcanique central et la Sierra Madre del Sur. Le relief accidenté, le climat sec et torride (elle est connue sous le nom de Terres Chaudes) et la rareté des voies de communication, tout concourt à en faire un lieu de purgatoire, à moins ...

The productivity gap between minifundia farmers and the large livestock farmers has increased continuously for thirty years. In 1989, it was 1 to 5 for labour productivity and 1 to 7 for monetary income per worker. Extensive livestock farming has become the only activity that ensures the sustainability of non-irrigated holdings. This requires more than 5 hectares per workers and access to the meagre grazing land that remains under common ownership to cover the minimum requirements of a family and to ensure its survival. However, this type of specialisation process now takes place in a saturated context in which land and forage prices are rising continuously. Only drug crops and trafficking or exceptional success in the United States enable a small number of people to reverse the current differentiation mechanisms. The others, that is to say the vast majority of minifundia farmers, do not seem to have an alternative to part-time farming and total subordination to the livestock farmers to whom they supply the crop residues grazed by cattle. But for how long? The farm size forming the sustainability threshold is increasing steadily and ‘emigration dollars’ will not be enough to set up the younger generation on even smaller holdings. The expulsion procedure is accelerating and with it the mechanisms of renewed concentration of landholding. Little by little, the social landscape of the Tierra Caliente area is recovering the features that it displayed before agrarian reform. El diferencial de productividad que separa los agricultores minifundistas de los grandes ganaderos no ha dejado de crecer en los últimos 30 anos. En 1989 era de 1 a 5 y el relativo al ingreso monetario por trabajador alcanzaba uno por siete. La ganaderia extensiva se ha impuesto como la única especialización que permite la reproducción amplia de las explotaciones sin riego. Se requiere entonces una superficie por trabajador superior a las 5 hectáreas de tierras de labor y un acceso a los escasos agostaderos que siguen indivisos para poder satisfacer las necesidades básicas de una familia. Pero semejante proceso de especialización debe ahora llevarse a cabo en un espacio saturado, en el que el precio de la tierra y el de los forrajes no dejan de aumentar. Sólo el cultivo y el tráfico de marihuana, o un éxito excepcional en Estados Unidos pueden hacer lograr a un pequeño número de productores invertir los mecanismos de diferenciación.Los otros, la inmensa mayoría de los productores minifundistas, no parecen tener otra alternativa que la doble actividad o una subordinación completa a los ganaderos, a quienes proporcionan los esquilmos consumidos por el ganado. ¿Para cuánto tiempo más? El umbral de reproducción no deja de desplazarse hacia superficies más grandes y los dólares de la emigración no alcanzarán para permitir la instalación de una nueva generación en parcelas aún más chicas. El proceso de expulsión se accelera y, con él, los mecanismos de re-concentración de tierras. Poco a poco, el paisaje social de la Tierra Caliente vuelve a cobrar el aspecto que tenía antes de la reforma agraria.

Front 1870, the development of communications enhanced the integration of producers in the national market and facilitated the arrival of a new wave of migrants from the Altiplano. Whereas the ranchos were specialised in the production of fattened cattle for the Mexico City market and production of sugar for sale in the region, Indian farmers were hit hard by competition from the large cotton estates in the northern part of the country. Their incomes fell and they became increasingly indebted. The larger cattle breaders and dealers succeeded in appropriating the land belonging to the old Indian communities and that of small farmers through usury and mortgage loans. Estates varying in size from 1,000 to 20,000 hectares were established.The farming System that they established was based on the concentration of very large areas in a catchment. The operator thus controlled the water supply required for the sugar plantations and the various ecological stages through which the cattle moved. The high pastures were grazed during the rainy season and the animals were then brought clown to more humid grazing land at the bottom of the slopes and then to the cultivated land in the valley bottoms where the stubble was grazed at the end of the dry season. A single cowherd could look after a large number of cattle and intermediate intake was kept very small.However, herd size and the size of the area planted with sugarcane depended on the number of landless farmers that each owner managed to settle on his estate. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers produced crop residues eaten by the cattle during the most critical period. They also planted and cut sugarcane. By taking half of the sharecroppers’ maize harvest and an average ofa third of that of his tenant farmers, the owner built up a stock of grain for fattening the beef cattle and pigs sold in Mexico City.The sharecropper just managed to feed his family and sometimes one or two pigs with the harvest share left to him. He was in any case dependent on the advances on harvest allowed to him by the owner. A few tenant farmers had a slightly greater margin for accumulation, but the appropriation of crop residues by the landowner forbade the ownership of more than two or three head of cattle and made it impossible for them to build up a capital. A partir de 1870, el desarrollo de las comunicaciones acelera la integración de los productores al mercado nacional, al mismo tiempo que favorece la llegada de una nueva ola de migrantes originarios del Altiplano. Mientras los ranchos ganaderos se especializan en la producción de ganado de engorda, con destino al mercado de México, y en la de azúcar vendida en la región, los campesinos indígenas padecen la competencia de los latifundios algodoneros del norte del país. Sus ingresos se derrumban y su endeudamiento crece. Mediante la usura y los prestamos hipotecarios, los grandes ganaderos y los comerciantes de ganado logran apropiarse de sus tierras, constituyendo latifundios cuyo tamaño rebasa a veces las 20,000 hectáreas.El sistema de producción que desarrollan estos hacendados descansa en la concentración de grandes superficies a la escala de una cuenca. De esta forma, se adueñan del agua necesaria al cultivo de caña, así como de los diferentes pisos ecológicos entre los que trashuma el ganado. Los animales se mantienen así en los pastizales más altos durante el temporal antes de bajarse hacia agostaderos de llano más húmedos y, a fines de la temporada seca, hacía los rastrojos abandonados en las tierras de cultivo. Este manejo permite que un solo vaquero cuide un vasto número de animales, mientras que el consumo de insumos queda muy limitado.En cambio, el tamaño del hato y la superficie sembrada de cana dependen del número de campesinos sin tierra que cada propietario logra fijar en su finca. Arrendatarios y medieros producen los esquilmos que consume el ganado en el período más crítico y proveen la mano de obra para la plantación y la cosecha de la caña. Acaparando la mitad de la cosecha de sus medieros y la tercera parte, en promedio, de la de sus arrendatarios, el propietario también se adueña de las reservas de grano útiles para la seba de bueyes y de puercos que, posteriormente, venderá en el mercado de México.La parte del trabajo que le queda al mediero apenas le permite alimentar su familia y, en ocasiones, a uno a dos puercos. En todo caso, no le alcanza para adquirir los medios de producción que utiliza. Los arrendatarios disponen de un margen de acumulación algo mayor, pero las posibilidades de constituirse un capital productivo quedan limitadas ya que el hacendado se adueña de la totalidad de los esquilmos y les impide poseer más de dos o tres cabezas de ganado.

Après les six années de gouvernement Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940), la Réforme agraire est brutalement ralentie. L’équilibre des forces politiques favorise désormais l’initiative privée, c’est-à-dire le secteur des exploitations les plus capitalisées, par opposition au secteur ejidal issu de la Réforme agraire. Le secteur privé est alors considéré comme le seul capable de mener à bien la « modernisation » de l’agriculture. Pour cela, il faut ouvrir de nouvelles terres aux activités agricoles et...

The agrarian reform law was only applied in the region after 1935, but it led to the redistribution of over 150,000 hectares of land. In order to escape expropriation, many of the estates were divided into ranchos of not more than a thousand hectares. Usufruct of confiscated land was awarded to the former sharecroppers and tenant farmers grouped into ejidos. They each received a 5 to 6-ha plot considered to be sufficient to cover the minimum requirements of their families. In contrast, the wooded slopes were cultivated in undivided form as grazing land for cattle. However, this redistribution was limited to land and did not concern the other means of production - tools, draught teams and capital. Only a few former tenant farmers possessed a draught team. The vast majority of ejidatarios who had been sharecroppers or agricultural day labourers did not even have enough autonomy not to need advances of seed maize.The cattle breaders thus held on to the monopoly of credit and draught. They controlled the access of small farmers to land and awarded themselves rights of commonage and free access to the ejidos rangeland. In order to obtain means of production, the ejidatarios sometimes had to become sharecroppers as during the hacienda era or at best obtain usurial loans obliging them to give away over a third of their agricultural production. The livestock farmers thus succeeded in conserving their pre-agrarian reform incomes. They also benefited from support from the major Altiplano oil industries who financed producers’ credit and required payment in sesame seed. Oilseed crops thus developed strongly in the ejidos where it was rotated with maize. However, the margin for accumulation by small farmers did not increase when the usurers had taken their share.Small farmers thus had to seek means for generating a surplus outside the Tierra Caliente area. Migration movements started very rapidly to commercial farming regions such as the Gulf of Mexico sugar plantations or the irrigated perimeters on the Pacific side of the country producing export fruit and vegetables. Poor farmers found labouring jobs during the dry season. The wages were scarcely sufficient to feed these migrants and their families but migration saved the maize that would have been eaten if they had stayed in their villages.The increase in the margin for accumulation by poor farmers remained insufficient to compensate the unequal relationship with the cattle breaders. Thirty years after agrarian reform, the gap in productivity and accumulation between livestock farmers and small farmers had not closed. The latter hardly achieved sustainability level and were vulnerable to any variation in price, in agricultural wages or in the area that they farmed. La ley de reforma agraria sólo se aplica en la región a partir de 1935, pero lleva entonces a la redistribución de más de 150,000 hectáreas. Para escapar de la expropiación, muchas de las propiedades se dividen en ranchos cuya superficie no rebasa las mil hectáreas. Las tierras confiscadas son entregadas en usufructo a los aparceros y arrendatarios, agrupados en un ejido. Reciben una parcela de 5 a 6 hectáreas, considerada como suficiente para cubrir las necesidades mínimas de una familia, mientras que las vertientes de monte espinoso se aprovechan en forma indivisa, como agostaderos para el ganado. Pero esta redistribución sólo concierne la propiedad del suelo y no contempla los demás medios de producción: aperos, arado, yuntas, capital. Sólo algunos de los antiguos arrendatarios poseen una yunta. En cambio, la inmensa mayoría de los ejidatarios, antaño medieros o peones, ni siquiera disponen de la autonomía suficiente para poder librarse de los anticipos de maíz que les hacía el hacendado.Los ganaderos conservan, pués, el monopolio que ejercían sobre el crédito y la fuerza de tracción. De esta forma, siguen controlando el acceso de los pequeños productores a la tierra, pueden arrogarse el derecho de pastoreo sobre los agostaderos y los esquilmos del ejido. Para conseguir los medios de producción, los ejidatarios, con frecuencia, tienen que someterse a las relaciones de aparceria que prevalecían en los latifundios o, en el mejor de los casos, a condiciones de usura que los llevan a ceder más de la tercera parte del valor creado en sus parcelas. Los ganaderos logran así conservar las rentas de las que gozaban antes de la reforma agraria. Además, benefician del apoyo de las grandes fábricas de aceite del Altiplano, las cuales financian el crédito a los campesinos e imponen su pago con semillas de ajonjolí. El cultivo de esta oleaginosa se desarrolla rapidamente así en todos los ejidos, donde se cultiva en las tierras de labor, en rotación con el maíz. No por ello los campesinos logran ampliar su margen de acumulación, ya que las tasas de intereses practicadas sólo les permiten cubrir las necesidades básicas de sus familias.El pequeño campesinado tuvo, pues, que buscar fuera de la Tierra Caliente los ingresos que le permitirían constituirse un excedente. Muy pronto, corrientes migratorias se desarrollaron hacia las regiones de agricultura comercial: los cañaverales del Golfo de México o los distritos de riego de la vertiente pacífica, donde se cultivan hortalizas de exportación. Ahí, los campesinos pobres encuentran empleos de peones el tiempo que dura la temporada seca. Los sueldos alcanzan a duras penas para alimentar esas «golondrinas» y su familia, pero la migración les hace ahorrar el maíz que consumirían quedándose durante seis meses en el ejido.Este aumento del margen de acumulación resulta insuficiente para compensar las relaciones desiguales con los ganaderos. Treinta años después de la reforma agraria, el diferencial de productividad y de acumulación entre los ganaderos y los campesinos pobres no se ha reducido. Éstos se mantienen apenas en el nivel del umbral de reproducción y siguen siendo vulnerables frente a cualquier variación del nivel de los precios agrícolas, del salario mínimo o de la superficie que cultivan.

Le sud-ouest de l’État du Michoacán est une région mal connue. Les reliefs escarpés de la Sierra Madre del Sur, le climat tropical sec, la rareté des voies de communication et la quasi-absence de surfaces labourables (environ 1 % du territoire) en font une région de faible potentiel agricole, encore peu peuplée et le plus souvent délaissée par les programmes de développement mis en place par les pouvoirs publics. Toute la région est maintenant consacrée à l’élevage semi-extensif dont les prod...

Au terme d’une migration paysanne commencée deux cents ans auparavant, voici donc les représentants de cette paysannerie originaire du centre du pays installés à quelques heures de marche seulement de la côte Pacifique. Pour chaque étape de ce glissement démographique, l’identification des groupes sociaux concernés par l’émigration, de leurs intérêts respectifs différents et contradictoires et des moyens dont ils disposent permet de comprendre qui sont ces paysans candidats au départ, pourquo...

Les transformations de l'agriculture dans l'une des régions de la Sierra Madre del Sur, au sud-ouest de l'État du Michoacán (Mexique), illustrent tout un pan de l'histoire agraire mexicaine. Le peuplement et l'histoire agraire de la région trouvent leur origine dans une longue migration paysanne commencée dès la fin du xixe siècle. Au gré des déplacements d'un « front pionnier » sans cesse instable, les métayers d'un moment deviennent des propriétaires-rancheros : petites gens de la culture du maïs sur brûlis. La chance aidant, ils se transforment en éleveurs-possesseurs de bétail et, du même coup, en dépossesseurs de terres indiennes. Dans un mouvement comparable à un jeu de pousse-pousse, des métayers promus en propriétaires sécrètent de nouveaux métayers n'ayant d'autres fins que de devenir, à leur tour, des propriétaires. Pour tous, quelles que soient les origines sociales, le chemin à parcourir et les moyens pour y parvenir, l'objectif est le même : s'installer comme éleveur sur ses propres terres. L'étude des systèmes de production, de leurs origines et de leurs transformations mesure les conséquences de la spécialisation régionale assignée à la Sierra Madre del Sur : une monoproduction de jeunes bovins destinés à être engraissés dans d'autres régions. Restent, au bout du chemin, les collectivités indiennes de la côte du Pacifique dont on spolie aujourd'hui les terres de la même manière que le faisaient, au xvie siècle, les premiers Européens. Cette ultime « réduction » des communautés indiennes est une conséquence de la nouvelle division du travail qui entraîne un processus de différenciation sociale accélérée.

HACIENDAS ET PAYSANNERIE DE L'ALTIPLANO AVANT L'INDÉPENDANCE Entre le vieux Mexique mésoaméricain densément peuplé et « civilisé » (Aztèque, Tarasque) et les vastes étendues semi-désertiques du nord, parcourues par les chasseurs-collecteurs « barbares » (Chichimèques), le Bajío apparaît d’abord aux Espagnols absolument vide et dépourvu de toute population. C’est une région constituée d’un chapelet complexe de bassins et de vallées tempérés, situés entre 1 600 et 1 900 m d’altitude, alignés gr...

Au Mexique, dans le sud-est de l'État du Michoacán, la société occupant la dépression du Río Balsas offre l'image d'un déséquilibre entre de grands domaines d'élevage et des exploitations minifundistes, pareille en cela à beaucoup d'agricultures latino-américaines. Tout au long de l'histoire, malgré une réforme agraire ambitieuse, l'élevage bovin, grâce au droit de vaine pâture sur les terres des communautés paysannes, a constitué la base des mécanismes d'accumulation différentielle et de concentration foncière. Pour les freiner, les petits paysans n'ont eu d'autre recours que la double activité et la migration saisonnière sur des distances qui s'allongent : les « hirondelles » se sont imposées comme la figure centrale de la société agraire des « Terres Chaudes » mexicaines. Aujourd'hui, leur survie en tant que producteurs agricoles est remise en question. L'élevage extensif est devenu la seule activité qui permette le maintien des revenus paysans, dans un contexte d'insertion croissante au marché et de perspectives d'intégration à l'espace économique nord-américain. Cette spécialisation s'exerce dans un espace largement saturé où la compétition pour les ressources fourragères marginalise les « hirondelles », à qui ne reste que l'espoir d'un « gros coup » lié aux activités illégales - la migration aux États-Unis, le trafic de cannabis - ou l'exode, cette fois définitif.

In the early 1960s, agrarian society had to face various crisis factors. A new generation of producers demanded access to land and division by inheritance resulted in the division of a fair number of plots, resulting in holdings that were not large enough to cover the minimum requirements of a family. The official policy of supplying urban centres at low cost simultaneously contributed to reducing the prices paid to maize and sesame producers. Faced with competition front regions where the second agricultural revolution had spread rapidly and enabled an increase in labour productivity, farmers’ incomes dwindled rapidly.The cattle breaders themselves were shut out of the Mexico City market by ranchos in the humid tropics whose production conditions were much more favourable. However, the demand for animals less than 18 months old developed in this fattening area and enabled cattle breaders in the Tierra Caliente region to specialise in the extensive production of calves. Development of the road System disenclaved the region in 1970 and facilitated the arrival of cattle buyers and the transport of young animals and also enhanced the importing of cheap maize. Changes in the macroeconomic environment thus led to a decline in food crop and sesame production while extensive cattle farming was the only activity in which there was a return on labour.This specialisation was accentuated by the diffusion of new means of production (motorised mechanisation, Chemical fertilisers and pesticides). However, the resulting increase in field crop yields did not compensate either the fall in farm prices or the decreased productivity of farm labour. In contrast, that of the large livestock farmers increased considerably. By purchasing tractors they were able to increase the areas that they cultivated themselves and remain the masters of motive force. The extension of sorghum and the use of fertilisers and herbicide resulted in larger quantities of crop residues and they were able to build up fodder reserves.These conditions enhanced the rapid growth of herds. The number of head of cattle was multiplied by three in less than thirty years. Livestock pressure on undivided rangeland therefore increased considerably and overgrazing became so common as to threaten the livestock System that had been functioning since agrarian reform. The exhaustion of grazing land led to the appropriation of undivided land by livestock farmers. Each one attempted to enclose and defend as large an area of grazing land as possible. The capital accumulated by each producer and his ability to finance fencing set the limits of this appropriation. Enclosure also spread to the plots of small ejidatarios which were enclosed by the cattlemen in exchange for rights of commonage for crop residues. This land appropriation finally elbowed out the small farmers by taking from them all possibility of undertaking similar specialisation in cattle breeding. The lag in accumulation had become final. Small producers were limited to forage production for the large operators and to the sale of their own labour. A principios de los años sesenta esta sociedad agraria se enfrenta con varios factores de crisis. Una nueva generación reclama el acceso a la tierra y, por herencia, numerosas dotaciones son divididas, dando lugar a unidades de producción demasiado pequeñas para poder cubrir las necesidades mínimas de una familia. En la misma época, la política oficial de abastecimiento a bajo costo de los centros urbanos lleva a reducir los precios al productor de maíz o de ajonjolí. Los campesinos de la Tierra Caliente se enfrentan a la competencia de las regiones donde la segunda revolución agrícola ha tenido una difusión rápida y ha logrado duplicar la productividad del trabajo; sus ingresos merman paulatinamente.Los ganaderos también son desplazados del mercado de México por los ranchos del Trópico Húmedo, que benefician de condiciones de productividad mucho más favorables. Sin embargo la demanda de animales jóvenes, de menos de 18 meses, crece en esas regiones de engorda y permite a los ganaderos de Tierra Caliente efectuar una nueva especialización hacia la cría extensiva de novillos. El desarrollo de la red de carreteras y su extensión a la depresión del Balsas a partir de 1970 facilita el comercio y el transporte de los bovinos, al mismo tiempo que favorece las importaciones de maíz barato. Las transformaciones del entorno macroeconómico llevan pues al ocaso las producciones de granos básicos mientras que la ganaderia extensiva se convierte en la única actividad donde la remuneración del trabajo se mantiene.La difusión de nuevos medios de producción (motomecanización, fertilizantes químicos, herbicidas) refuerza esta especialización. El leve aumento de los rendimientos de los cultivos básicos que esta permite no alcanzá a compensar la caida de los precios agrícolas. En cambio la productividad de los ganaderos sí aumenta. Con la compra de tractores, pueden ampliar las superficies que cultivan y conservar el control de la fuerza de tracción. La difusión del sorgo, de los fertilizantes y de los herbicidas les ayuda a incrementar la producción de esquilmos y las reservas forrajeras.Estas condiciones han propiciado el crecimiento rápido de los hatos: los efectivos bovinos se han triplicado en menos de treinta años. La presión del ganado sobre los agostaderos se incrementó en forma considerable y el sobrepastoreo se generalizo al grado de cuestionar el tipo de manejo del ganado que se practicaba desde la reforma agraria. El agotamiento de los agostaderos llevó los ganaderos a apropiarse de los terrenos indivisos, cada quien buscando cercar la mayor extensión de pastizales. El capital acumulado por cada cual y su capacidad para financiar la instalación de cercas es lo que determina los limites de esta apropiación. Las cercas se extienden también a las parcelas de los ejidatarios que los ganaderos cercan a su vez a cambio del libre pastoreo de los esquilmos. Este fenómeno acaba marginando a los pequeños productores en el sentido de que se les quita toda posibilidad de adquirir algun día algunas cabezas de ganado y de realizar semejante especialización hacia la cría extensiva: los retrasos en la acumulación se han vuelto definitivos. El campesinado se halla limitado a la producción de forrajes para los ganaderos y a la venta de su fuerza de trabajo.

In order to decrease the fall in the profitability of traditional maize and sesame crops, attempts at intensification from the mid-1970s onwards have resulted in the irrigation of over 4,000 hectares in the Southern part of the region. Some traders started to develop tomato and above all melon production for export or for urban markets. However, vegetable production requires considerable operating capital and access to markets is still controlled by large trade monopolies. Access for a producer with no capital is only possible through a sharecropping arrangement with a trader who undertakes to supply all the inputs and to sell the crop.Relations of production are often even more unfavourable. The greater part of melon production is performed by North American entrepreneurs who rent the land nearest the main watercourses from ejidos and installe irrigation Systems themselves. The rent paid to the ejidatario is no more than the added value that he would have gained from a rainfed maize crop. The profit that he can obtain lies more in the guarantee of work for himself and his family throughout the production cycle. In any case, the farmer receives only a fraction of the added value created on his land. He earns half if he is a sharecropper and less if his land is rented.The substantial profits of vegetable production considerably increased farmers’ incomes. However, this intensification remains limited in area (no more than 1% of the land in the region is irrigated or irrigable) and in time. High temperatures and the repetition of crop cycles also enhance the spread of pests and a parallel increase in production costs. Dwindling margins soon lead to the shifting of investors to Virgin’ land where their profit margins are sure to be higher. The conditions of intensification thus remain extremely precarious, concern a limited number of producers and do not seem to change the imbalances of the agrarian System in the Tierra Caliente area.Small farmers had to leave the region once again to seek income to enable them to survive. The migratory routes that established after agrarian reform became extended to the USA where wages are ten times as high. This severely sanctioned illegal immigration is therefore based on clandestine networks whose effectiveness (and the profits that may be hoped for) depends in the amount that the immigrant can afford. Prices start at 400 dollars - nearly 6 months of the lowest wages - and so the option is not available to the poorest. However, it enables the survival of many holdings whose structures fall short of sustainability. However, it is much rarer for the arrival of dollars to increase operating capital. As the largest profits are more readily available to the livestock farmers, emigration increases the difference in accumulation and enhances the capacity of expansion of the oligarchies.Growing cannabis offers even better prospects for earning money, as long as the particularly violent repression is avoided. The hemp plants have to be hidden and so the crop is scattered over a very large area. The small minifundia farmers thus only have access to the enormous rents from hemp trafficking by sharecropping the rangeland of a large cattle breaders or by being a wage-earner on the plantations. They also bear the brunt of repression. The difference in accumulation by cattle breaders and minifundia farmers increases here again.The many departures for the USA or for the cannabis plantation have contributed to increasing the cost of agricultural labour in the Tierra Caliente area. The daily wage paid during peak periods of the rainfed crop cycles increased by 150% in real terms from 1980 to 1989. The rise first affected small growers of maize or sesame, both of which are labour-intensive crops. The farmers reacted by simplifying their crop management sequences and hence reducing yields, without it being possible to make up for the loss by increasing the cultivated area. As cultivation seasons lasting three or four months is not favourable for the survival of a large population of labourers or part-time farmers. The impoverishment and exodus of poor farmers continued, aggravating the seasonal shortage of labour. Para contrarestar la pérdida de rentabilidad de los cultivos tradicionales de maíz y de ajonjolí, algunos intentos de intensificación han surgido desde mediados de los años 1970, a raíz de la irrigación de más de 4,000 hectáreas en la parte sur de la región. Algunos comerciantes han impulsado los cultivos de tomate y, sobre todo, de melón destinado a los mercados urbanos o de Estados Unidos. Pero la producción de hortalizas requiere de un capital productivo muy importante y el acceso a los mercados está controlado por poderosos monopolios comerciales. Para el campesino desprovisto de capital, tal acceso sólo es posible mediante contratos de aparceria con un comerciante que se encarga de proporcionar los insumos y de vender la producción.Con frecuencia las relaciones de producción resultan aún más desfavorables. La mayor parte de la producción de melones está en manos de empresarios norteamericanos que alquilan las tierras de los ejidos cercanos a los principales ríos, instalan ahí la infraestructura de riego y se hacen cargo del cultivo. La renta que pagan al ejidatario no rebasa entonces el valor agregado que este podría obtener de un cultivo de maíz de temporal y el beneficio que saca reside más en el hecho de que se le garantiza el empleo para su familia durante todo el ciclo de producción. En todo caso, el campesino sólo recibe una fracción del valor creado de su parcela: la mitad si está en situación de mediero, y mucho menos si alquiló su tierra.Las utilidades generadas por la producción de hortalizas podrían sin embargo incrementar sensiblemente los ingresos de los campesinos. Pero el alcance de tal intensificación esta limitado tanto en el espacio (las tierras que pueden beneficiarse del riego no representan más del 1% de la superficie regional) como en el tiempo. Las altas temperaturas y la repetición de los ciclos de cultivo favorecen la multiplicación rápida de los parásitos y el aumento paralelo de los costos de producción. A corto plazo, la merma de sus márgenes de beneficio lleva los “inversionistas” a desplazarse hacia tierras “vírgenes”, donde están seguros de aprovechar tasas de ganancia más altas. Las condiciones de la intensificación siguen siendo, pues, muy precarias. Estas implican a un número limitado de productores y no inducen una modificación sensible de los desequilibrios del sistema agrario de la Tierra Caliente.Una vez más, los campesinos pobres tienen que buscar fuera de la región los ingresos necesarios a su sobrevivencia. Los circuitos migratorios que se habían desarrollado hacia las áreas de riego del país se han extendido a los Estados Unidos, donde los salarios son 8 a 10 veces superiores. Se trata de una migración ilegal, duramente reprimida, que descansa en gran medida sobre redes clandestinas cuya eficacidad (y los beneficios que se pueden esperar) son función de la inversión que el candidato puede realizar. El costo del pasaje asciende por lo menos a 400 dólares, o sea seis meses del salario mínimo. Esta alternativa resulta, pues, fuera del alcance de los más pobres.La migración permite sin embargo la sobrevivencia de muchas explotaciones cuyas estructuras productivas se ubican por debajo del umbral de reproducción. Pero los envíos de dólares raras veces permiten elevar el capital de explotación. Los grandes ganaderos están en la mejor posición para sacar el mayor provecho de la migración y ésta contribuye al cabo a reforzar las diferencias de acumulación y la capacidad de expansión de las oligarquías.El cultivo de la marihuana ofrece posibilidades de enriquecimiento aún más grandes, siempre y cuando se pueda evitar una represión muy violenta. Para lograrlo, es necesario atomizar la superficie cultivada en un espacio muy grande para disimular los plantíos de marihuana. De suerte que los campesinos minifundistas sólo puedan acceder a las rentas generadas por el tráfico mediante contratos de aparcería en los agostaderos de los grandes ganaderos o trabajando de peones en sus sembradíos. Son ellos los que soportan el peso de la represión. En este caso también, el narcotráfico contribuye a ampliar el diferencial de acumulación que existe entre ganaderos y “golondrinas”.Las numerosas partidas hacia Estados Unidos o las plantaciones de marihuana han propiciado un incremento considerable del costo del trabajo agrícola en la Tierra Caliente. El salario atribuido a los peones en lo más algido del trabajo de temporal ha aumentado un 150% en términos reales entre 1980 y 1989. El alza afecta sobre todo a los pequeños productores de maíz y ajonjolí (cultivos que requieren de mucho trabajo), los cuales han reaccionado simplificando los itinerarios técnicos, es decir limitando los rendimientos, sin poder compensar esa merma con un incremento de la superficie cultivada. La duración del ciclo de temporal (3 a 4 meses) tampoco permite la sobrevivencia de una numerosa población de jornaleros. La mina y el éxodo de los campesinos pobres se amplifican, y contribuyen a reforzar la penuria estacional de la mano de obra.

Les transformations économiques et politiques des Terres Chaudes depuis plus d’un siècle ne paraissent pas avoir affecté les mécanismes de différenciation sociale et de marginalisation qui en faisaient l'une des sociétés les plus inégalitaires à l’aube de la Révolution mexicaine : l’histoire agraire semble s’y répéter sous l’intervention d’acteurs et de contraintes qui ont peu évolué. Un siècle après la dissolution des communautés indiennes, les conditions économiques et sociales paraissent à...

Entre 1870 et 1920, la Sierra de Coalcomán est occupée par une paysannerie immigrée qui s’empare des terrains indivis de l’ancienne communauté indienne de Coalcomán. L’installation de ces familles, la mise en œuvre de nouveaux moyens de production et la généralisation du métayage bouleversent les formes de mise en valeur. Les bases d’un nouveau système agraire sont progressivement définies. La culture sur brûlis ne représente plus l’unique système de culture pratiqué. Elle est maintenant seco...

The Middle Balsas possessed diversified agriculture focused on Altiplano markets from the middle of the 15th century. The population was concentrated along the main watercourses, where two food crop cycles were possible each year (maize, beans, squash) on wooded slopes that were cleared, burned and cropped during the rainfed cycle and on beaches periodically flooded and fertilised by the rivers. Cotton was also grown on the beaches and used by farmers to pay tribute to the State.In addition to their work in the fields, the farmers were employed in mines controlled by the central power or on small cocoa plantations near springs and which were owned by the administrative or religions nobility. At the time of the Spanish conquest, this agrarian System provided subsistence for a population estimated at 20,000.The first century of Spanish colonisation was marked by the pillage and destruction of this society. Once the mining resources and local labour had been exhausted, the Middle Balsas region long remained on the fringe of the economy of Nueva Espana. The despoiled Indian communities concentrated their activities in the alluvial beach areas and reduced their exchanges with the creole population to sales of cotton.A mixed blood population did not become established until the 18th century when the large cereal farms spread in the Altiplano. Sharecroppers and small farmers expelled from the Bajio haciendas settled on the land left vacant by the Indian communities. They introduced new means of production which completely changed the way in which the environment was exploited.Draught cultivation resulted in considerable increase in productivity and in particular multiplied by three the area that could be cultivated by slash and burn techniques. It also enabled the new arrivals to establish exclusive, permanent rights of use of the land that they cultivated. These rights had long been unknown to the native communities as the long period of forest fallow or the annual flood rendered individual appropriation of land impossible. By sustaining their installation on land, the creole farmers were able to carry out some development work on their ranchos, such as irrigating the small plots of sugarcane planted after rainfed food crops.The cattle that made possible this agricultural revolution grazed the vast stretches of scrubland belonging to the Indian communities and whose status was stable thanks to rights of commonage. The creole livestock farmers thus benefited very early on front a rent derived from free access to Indian land that had remained jointly owned. A distinct difference in productivity and accumulation already separated the creoles from the Indians.The components of the creole farming System spread to the Indian villages as much as allowed by individual accumulation. The community rules governing control of land weakened throughout the 19th century and individual appropriation became widespread. La región del Curso Medio del Balsas ha sido, desde mediados del siglo XV, la cuna de una agricultura diversificada y orientada hacia los mercados del Altiplano. La población se concentraba a lo largo de los principales ríos, donde el cultivo bajo roza-tumba y quema de las vertientes enmontadas durante el temporal y luego el de las playas inundadas y fertilizadas por las crecientes, permitían dos ciclos de producción de granos básicos al ano (maíz, frijol y calabaza). También en esas playas se sembraba algodón que los campesinos entregaban como tributo al Estado.Otra fracción de su plustrabajo estaba dirigida hacia las minas controladas por el poder central, o bien era captada para labrar pequeñas huertas de cacao, establecidas cerca de los manantiales, y que poseía la nobleza administrativa o religiosa. En el momento histórico de la conquista española, este sistema agrario lograba mantener una población de unos 20,000 habitantes.El primer siglo de colonización española se caracterizó por el saqueo y la destrucción de esta sociedad. Una vez agotados los recursos mineros y la mano de obra indígena, la región del Medio Balsas se quedó al margen de la economía de la Nueva España. Las comunidades indígenas, agotadas, concentraron sus actividades a proximidad de las playas aluviales, limitando sus intercambios con la población criolla a la venta de algodón.El establecimiento de la población mestiza sólo se produjo en el curso del siglo XVIII, cuando se expandieron los latifundios cerealeros del Altiplano. Un número considerable de aparceros y pequeños arrendatarios, expulsados de las haciendas del Bajío, se instalaron entonces en los inmensos espacios que la población india diezmada había dejado baldíos. Introdujeron nuevos medios de producción que les permitieron revolucionar el modo de aprovechamiento del medio.El cultivo con arado y yunta les daba una ventaja de productividad considerable: logró triplicar la superficie que se cultivaba con el sistema de roza y quema. Permitió también a los recién llegados establecer un derecho de uso exclusivo y permanente sobre la tierra que labraban. Tal derecho había quedado hasta entonces desconocido en las comunidades indígenas, ya que el largo período de renovación forestal o la creciente anual del río impedían cualquier apropiación individual. Al volverse perenne su asentamiento, los agricultores mestizos pudieron arreglar sus parcelas, desviando pequeños caudales para regar superficies reducidas. En ellos se sembraba la caña de azúcar que venía a suceder, en el calendario agrícola, al cultivo de temporal de granos básicos.El ganado, que permitió llevar a cabo esta revolución agrícola, se mantenía en los extensos pastizales que pertenecían a las comunidades indígenas y gracias al derecho de pastoreo que los indios les concedían en sus parcelas. El libre acceso a los terrenos indígenas indivisos hizo, pues, que los ganaderos mestizos beneficiaran de una verdadera renta. Un gran diferencial de productividad y de acumulación separaba ya los dos polos de esta sociedad agraria.Estas condiciones explican que los elementos del sistema de producción criollo se hayan difundido en los pueblos indios tan rápido como la acumulación individual lo permitía. A lo largo del siglo XIX, las reglas comunitarias de control sobre la tierra se fueron debilitando paulatinamante, mientras que la apropiación individual se generalizaba.

International audience; On the Mediterranean island of Corsica, cohabitation between sympatric domestic pigs and Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) is common and widespread and can facilitate the maintenance and dissemination of several pathogens detrimental for the pig industry or human health. In this study, we monitored a population of free-ranging domestic pigs reared in extensive conditions within a 800-ha property located in Central Corsica which was frequently visited by a sympatric population of wild boar between 2013 and 2015. We used GPS collars to assess evidence of a spatially shared environment. Subsequently, we analysed by PFGE of XbaI-restricted DNA if those populations shared faecal Escherichia coli clones that would indicate contact and compared these results with those collected in a distant (separated by at least 50 km) population of wild boar used as control. Results showed that one of eight wild boars sampled in the study area shed E. coli XbaI clones identical to clones isolated from domestic pig sounders from the farm, while wild boar populations sampled in distant parts of the study area shared no identical clone with the domestic pigs monitored. Interestingly, within the sampled pigs, two identical clones were found in 2013 and in 2015, indicating a long-time persisting colonization type. Although the method of isolation of E. coli and PFGE typing of the isolates requires intensive laboratory work, it is applicable under field conditions to monitor potential infectious contacts. It also provides evidence of exchange of microorganisms between sympatric domestic pigs and wild boar populations.

The social expectation for more sustainable livestock farming systems is growing. However, multidisciplinary approaches to assess the sustainability of pig farming systems are not sufficiently addressed. Twenty-five farms of local pig breed’s production in France (Noir de Bigorre chain – Gascon breed) were evaluated altogether in terms of environmental impacts (EN), economic sustainability (EC) and animal welfare (AW), using multiple factor analysis (MFA) and hierarchical clustering (HC). The first dimension of MFA (22.7% the total variance) was mainly associated to the EN (r=0.56) and AW (r=0.52), while the second (20.8% of the total variance) was linked to EC (r=0.41). The HC resulted in the identification of four groups: Group 1 comprised farrow-to-finish farms, with a farmer aged between 20-30 years-old, characterized by high EN, high dietary crude protein (CP) of fattening feeds and feed conversion ratio (FCR), low AW, and usually low EC. It could be described as ‘sustainability unfavourable’, with an overall inefficient management of the farm, when the high FCR could be a result of the high feed waste. Group 2, composed by 75% of feeder-to-finish farms, was characterized by high transferability, high land occupation (LO), and low AW. It could be described as ‘AW unfavourable and Transferability favourable’; maybe due to the high LO, animals were raised with lower level of care. Group 3 comprised farrow-to-finish farms managed by a man, and characterized by high EC, high number of sows and low EN per ha. It could be described as ‘EC and EN favourable’, described by high farm size and good management practices. Group 4, characterized by high AW and low EN, could be described as ‘AW and EN favourable’, with more attention to AW and lower surface available to pig production. The use of an integrated evaluation highlights different profiles of farmers which are associated with various results in the different themes considered. Based on complementary themes, it provides a broader representation of the sustainability of pig farming systems than the use of one theme. Funded by European Union’s H2020 RIA program (grant agreement no. 634476).

International audience; Livestock-driven nutrient flows are the main sources of soil and crop fertilization in West African agro-sylvo-pastoral landscapes. They result from nutrient recycling between farm activities and the spatial transfer of nutrients within the landscape. “Extensive” systems, based on livestock mobility are tending to be replaced by more “intensive” systems based on in-barn livestock fattening. We built an agent-based model to compare these systems in terms of nitrogen cycling at land plot, herd, household and village levels. Model evaluation, based on field-data from two real contrasted villages, showed that the model satisfactorily reproduces the differences between an “extensive” and an “intensive” system with key parameters such as variability among households and soil fertility gradients. Simulations highlighted bottlenecks along the nitrogen (N) cycle like accumulation of N in manure heaps and housing areas, reducing N recycling efficiency, especially in “intensive” systems. The model can be further used to explore improved agro-sylvo-pastoral landscapes.

Purpose Despite the farm being considered by many as the most suitable level of decision-making and strategic management in agriculture, there is an increasing interest in evaluating agricultural management strategies at the regional level. Recent initiatives attempted to aggregate and generalise farm-level lifecycle inventory (LCI) data and lifecycle impact assessment (LCIA) results to describe the environmental performance of agricultural regions. This article describes our development and application of a regional statistics-based approach for constructing virtual representative farms (VRFs), representing dominant farm types for a given region, as a tool for comparing alternative regional agricultural strategies in contexts of insufficient farm (e.g. LCI) data. Methods Based on statistical sources, we constructed VRFs of the dominant farm types in the largely agricultural region of Brittany, France. Environmental impacts of different agricultural management strategies were estimated at the regional level by modelling the strategies as changes in VRF-based LCIs, calculating LCIAs and extrapolating their mean per-ha impacts to the total land use in the region. Based on this assessment, performed using a regional lifecycle assessment framework, we analysed relative environmental impacts of each management strategy on the region. A strategy-comparison table was built to allow decision makers to understand the potential regional environmental consequences of implementing each strategy. Results and discussion Once VRFs impact assessment results were extrapolated to the regional level, all strategies show environmental impacts per ha similar to those of the baseline, with differences ranging from −15 to +6%. The scenario featuring centralised fodder drying by 50% of cattle farms (50FOD) is the only one featuring surpluses for all products, due to associated cattle diet adjustments including reduced maize silage intake and partial substitution of concentrate feeds. The scenario featuring grass specialisation by all cattle farms (100GRA) shows a large deficit of grassland products, suggesting that a region-wide extensification strategy would not be self-sufficient. Conclusions The method developed enables comparing environmental consequences of region-wide implementation of agricultural strategies, yet, for our case study, it is particularly difficult to identify a “best” one. Nonetheless, the method serves as an initial step for preselecting strategies to investigate at a more detailed level. Prioritisation of a given strategy would likely be based on the environmental pressures considered most pressing by regional decision makers.

Traditional pig productions systems, relying mainly on local pig breeds and outdoor rearing, have been poorly investigated so far in terms of environmental impacts. The few existing studies did not account for possible sequestration of carbon and emissions consecutive to grazing. Twenty-five farms of Gascon breed in France (FR), 8 with Mora Romagnola breed in Italy (IT), and 15 of Krškopolje breed in Slovenia (SI) were evaluated while accounting for the emissions from pasture intake and the potential for carbon sequestration. Pig production system in SI presented the lowest impacts per kg of live weight, due to better feed conversion ratio caused by indoor production and due to lower impacts of feeds – most diets were based on grains, vegetables, tubers and roots produced on farm. Among the systems, acidification potential (AP) was 13% higher in IT than the average for FR and SI, due to higher dietary crude protein content (+9% than the average), while the eutrophication potential (EP) was 27% higher in FR system than the average, as a result of higher phosphorus content of feeds (+28% than the average). When the potential of carbon sequestration was taken into account, the GWP impact was reduced 4% on average. Conversely, when accounting for the emissions from pasture intake the GWP was increased by 2%, mainly when a high digestible grass was considered. The use of high digestible grass provided lower AP and EP impacts than low digestible grass. The large variability between farms in terms of environmental impacts suggests that the margins for improvement of local breeds’ production rely on improvement of feed composition and supply, and origin of feed ingredients. There is a great need for better estimation of digestibility of grasses and of carbon sequestration, in order to reduce the uncertainties associated with the environmental impacts evaluated of outdoor pigs’ systems. Funded by European Union’s H2020 RIA program (grant agreement no. 634476).

International audience; Extensive farming systems produce for the society goods and services definable as public goods (biodiversity…), or having public good features (landscape attractiveness…). The provision of these public goods may not be guaranteed due to the lack of recognition of their values in markets and policies that ultimately can put in risk the future of these systems. Within TREASURE project, a choice experiment (CE) survey was applied to assess the social demand for relevant attributes of the Noir de Bigorre (NB) French regional pork chain producing Gascon local pig breed in extensive system with public good character. CE is an economic valuation method estimating the social demand for a given attribute or for combinations of them in management scenarios. Five relevant attributes of the NB chain and their current and potential levels in alternative management options were identified from focus groups: probability of existence of the breed in next 25 years, farm size, feedstuff origin, geographical availability of the products and type of selling places. A monetary attribute was included to assess the social demand for the previous attributes. A valuation questionnaire was administered to 418 individuals (365 through web-based survey, 53 face-to-face), half of them located in the South West of France, i.e. the production area of the NB chain. Results of the CE showed that the respondents had a distinctively urban profile, with no agricultural family background. Almost 40% of the respondents did not know or consume products from the NB chain. On average guaranteeing the survival of the breed achieved the highest willingness to pay (112.37 €/household/year). Respondents were willing to pay 42.35€ to maintain equal number of small and medium farms and 21.86€ to have feedstuff produced in the proximity of the farms. Geographical availability and selling places of products contributed to a lesser extent to shape their preferences. Funded by European Union’s H2020 RIA program (grant agreement no. 634476).