What are the plant/animal balances in continental France, on two spatial scales?

Abstract

The adaptation of livestock activities to local resources enables to improve the autonomy at the country scale and to reduce inputs associated with transport. The work presented was undertaken in the framework of the EFESE-agricultural ecosystems study. A simple method based on agricultural statistics and complementary data sources is proposed, in order to calculate, on a yearly basis, the plant/animal equilibrium. The capacity to feed the local population of farm animals (CAPA) is determined, for the whole country and for Small Agricultural Regions (SAR), as the ratio between the plant resources available as feed and the consumption by livestock. Due to lack of consistent data, SAR with little livestock, as well as horses, are excluded. For France, CAPA is 0.98 on the basis of dry matter (0.81 for crude protein); such figures conceal a protein deficit, with CAPA for crude protein as low as 0.42 for concentrate, due to high soybean import. A typology of SAR differentiates 5 groups in terms of plant/animal equilibrium. Mapping these groups enables identifing homogeneous and heterogeneous areas, the latter bearing potential synergies at higher levels. These original results need to be refined before considering their use to support an ecological transition.