Improving grassland management in European livestock farming systems

Expected Outcome

Proposals should contribute to the objectives of the common agricultural policy (CAP), to the EU Green Deal’s goals for resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, the EU biodiversity strategy, the Nature Restoration Regulation, the climate policy, and the EU action plan for the development of organic production. Proposals will also contribute to the expected impacts of the destination by enabling farmers and relevant actors in the agricultural sector to manage sustainable, efficient, profitable, circular, low greenhouse gas-emitting farming systems contributing to climate-neutrality and climate-resilience.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• the availability of data, models and methodologies to measure, monitor, assess and valorise the multifunctionality of grassland farming systems is improved, benefitting all relevant actors involved in grassland management;
• the availability and accessibility for, and use by farmers of sustainable grassland management knowledge, innovative solutions/practices and strategies is increased;
• networking, participatory approaches and knowledge mobilisation among relevant stakeholders for sustainable grassland management is enhanced;
• scientific support and recommendations for the development, implementation and evaluation of EU policies relevant for grasslands, including the CAP, the EU climate policy and the Nature Restoration Regulation is provided.

Scope

Well managed grasslands are key for the sustainability of the EU’s and Associated Countries agriculture and for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, including water purification, erosion and flood prevention, carbon sequestration and food production, and for preserving biodiversity. Grasslands can also play an important role as protein crop supply for feed. They constitute key elements of European socio-cultural landscapes. However, grasslands maintenance and functions in the EU are under threat for reasons that may include sub-optimal input management, intensification, farm concentration, climate change and abandonment.

Ensuring the sustainable management of grasslands and preventing their disappearance is essential for a sustainable farming sector, for healthy nature, and for human wellbeing in the EU and Associated Countries. This calls for increasing scientific evidence on grasslands across Europe, including on their performance, benefits and trade-offs (e.g., climate, environment, biodiversity, socio-economic). There is also a need to further develop and demonstrate approaches that allow assessing the climate change adaptation and mitigation potential of grazing livestock systems, along with other benefits they can deliver. Moreover, farmers need new knowledge, innovative solutions, support and advice to sustainably maintain grasslands, and to restore degraded grassland habitats.

In this context, the role of and coherence among policies is crucial. Research and Innovation have a key role to play in demonstrating that properly managed grasslands systems are viable options for farmers.

This topic focuses on grazing livestock systems and involves both permanent grasslands, as defined in Regulation (EU) 2021/2115[1], and temporary grasslands, understood as arable land with grasses, or grass mixtures with other species, that has been included in the crop rotation before reaching the five years that are necessary to be considered as permanent grassland.

Proposals should address all the following activities and should cover various farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming:

• develop and operationalise methodologies to measure, monitor, benchmark and assess the performance of grassland farming systems in different contexts in terms of the delivery of ecosystem services (e.g., productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, resilience to climate change, soil health, forage value), biodiversity restoration, reducing emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutants, and social aspects such as profitability for farmers and co-benefits for other stakeholders. This should include analysis of synergies and trade-offs between the above elements in the short- to medium- and long-terms. The benchmark of the performance of grassland farming systems should also include comparison between different levels of grass-based ruminants’ farming systems in similar pedo-climatic contexts;
• develop new knowledge, innovative solutions/practices, and manageable strategies for creating, maintaining and restoring grasslands systems that are productive, cost-effective, sustainable, environmentally sound, and resilient to a changing climate. These strategies should include assessment of innovations in the social, environmental and economic domains, such as market uptake by value chain actors and consumers through, for instance, standards and labelling;
• develop farm- and landscape level decision tools and strategies to support farmers in managing grasslands sustainably, to improve forage productivity and quality and livestock production, and the delivery of other ecosystem services, based on documented cases or in-situ demonstrators;
• organise activities to mobilise the sharing of knowledge (scientific, practical and traditional), and networking among relevant actors. Proposals should develop practice-oriented dissemination materials, e.g. audiovisual materials, brochures, etc., presenting solutions, and make them publicly available;
• assess relevant public policies at various levels and provide policy recommendations to improve their impact and coherence in supporting sustainable grassland systems;
• perform economic cost-benefit analysis of applying the R&I solutions developed during the project and explore the potential of financing or incentive tools specific to the sustainable management of grassland farming systems, including lower-polluting and lower-GHG-emitting grazing livestock systems, and where relevant, restoration of degraded grasslands habitats.

Proposals must implement the 'multi-actor approach’ and ensure adequate involvement of the main stakeholders involved in grassland management in Europe, e.g., farmers (including farmers managing protected grassland habitats), shepherds and related organisations notably in the ruminants’ sectors, advisors, policy-makers, landscape and territorial planners, industry including small and medium enterprises, social economy actors, consumers, environmental Non-Governmental Organisations, etc.

Proposals should capitalise on research findings and tools, included those developed under previous research projects. Proposals should cover a variety of grasslands systems in different pedo-climatic conditions and biogeographical regions across the EU and consider marginal areas at risk of abandonment or with other constraints, and areas in intensification trends towards arable crop farming. Activities should allow for the comparison of performance and sustainability between grasslands systems presenting mixtures of plant species, including legumes, compared to mono-species grasslands. The possible contribution of the JRC could involve connecting with spatial datasets on livestock grazing density and grassland management intensity available in its portfolio. Furthermore, Eurostat[2] related data should also be considered.

Proposals should include a dedicated task, appropriate resources and a plan on how they will collaborate with other projects funded under this topic. Proposals should, where relevant, consider the use of Earth Observation data. Proposals should ensure complementarities with other relevant activities carried out under other initiatives in Horizon Europe, including those funded under the topics HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-04, HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-04, as well as with relevant activities of the Horizon Europe Partnership ‘Agroecology’ and other relevant future Horizon Europe Partnerships and R&I projects.

In order to enhance the societal and long-term impact of the activities beyond the life cycle of the project, proposals should apply social innovation and citizen engagement and include a strong involvement of citizens/civil society, together with academia/research, industry/SMEs/start-ups and government/public authorities.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines. To achieve the objectives of this topic, international cooperation is encouraged.

[1] http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/2115/oj

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/experimental-statistics/geospatial-data-agricultural-census