Learning self-sufficiency in mixed farming and dairy systems

Self-sufficient mixed farming and livestock systems offer numerous agro-ecological benefits. This study aims to understand and formalise the functioning of self-sufficient mixed farming and livestock systems, and their gradual development from situations relying on external inputs. We analyse the evolution of agricultural practices during the transition from the farmer’s perspective: we formalise this as a transformation of the farmer’s work activities. We present an analysis of four diversified mixed farming systems that have evolved towards self-sufficiency. Autonomous mixed-farming and livestock-rearing farmers manage new aspects, which vary from farmer to farmer: the herd’s feed self-sufficiency, self-sufficiency in straw, animal health, the herd’s nutritional balance…They operate by drawing on new knowledge and new indicators acquired step by step during the transition. The development of these new ways of thinking and acting has been achieved by drawing on various resources, some of which are common to all four farms studied. Despite these shared resources, the way these four farms operate is highly distinctive: this distinctiveness stems from the need to relocalise agricultural activity within these systems. Relocalisation is based on the rediscovery and mobilisation of resources internal to the systems, without recourse to external inputs. The majority of internal resources are located at the interfaces between arable farming and livestock farming.