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ARChE_Net workshop’s Report

The initial workshop of the ARChE_Net project (Adaptation of Ruminant systems to a Changing

Environment) took place from the 25th to the 29th of April 2013, at the Hotel “Le Victoria”, in St

Pierre, Reunion Island (FR). All the partners of the seven countries involved (Australia, Comoros,

India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Reunion Island and South Africa) were invited to participate at this

first project meeting, in order to get to know each other and discuss the project’s objectives and

future activities. In total, 25 partners came, represented by about 30 people from 12 different

nationalities.

After the opening speeches from French government’s (Gilles Lajoie; Frédéric Cadet) and CIRAD

(Philippe Cao Van and Philippe Lecomte) representatives, the first two days were devoted to the

partners’ presentations. Each partner1 described its institution, its position in relation to the project

and they also made an inventory of the relevant available data/facilities/workforce they could

provide to ARChE_Net.

The third day was a field day. After an early departure from the hotel, all the international partners

took a touristic tour through the Reunion Island’s mountainous landscapes to reach the Volcano. The

day was also the opportunity for the participants to discover the local ruminant production systems.

Thanks to the Reunion Island’s partners, two farms were visited (a beef and a dairy farms) as well as

a Sicalait farm, in which the cooperative implemented a rearing facility for young dairy cows coming

from its members. The last visit was a long-term fertilization trial implemented by CIRAD 10 years

ago that is looking at the evolution of biomass production, soil nutrients and gas emissions

depending on the type of fertilizer.

1 Australia: CSIRO, CSU, DPI Wagga Wagga, UTAS; Comoros: DNESPV; India: BAIF, NIANP, SVVU; Madagascar:

AU-ESSA, FOFIFA, FIFAMANOR, GSDM, IRD, LRI; Mozambique: IIAM, ILRI, UEM; Reunion Island (FR): ARP, RU-

CEMOI, CIRAD, FRCA, Sicalait, Sicarevia; South Africa: ARC, NWU, UP.

Mr Picard’s beef cattle farm Fertilization trial

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After having reached back the hotel, the partners had the possibility to follow different optional

workshops. They were focusing on the different tools that the project is planning to use or develop,

such as the NIRS technology, the NDVI method and the LASER software package. During the fourth

day, the morning was dedicated to a group work by country, where each partner of the same country

had to discuss about the main environmental challenges that affect their ruminant systems, the type

of farming system they are planning to work on, the monitoring tools they would like to apply, their

priorities for training and the possible expertise they could receive from/give to the project. The

group work’s findings were afterwards shown by a representative of each country. For the last day, a

workshop’s global synthesis was made, and the project logo was elected! During the week, all the

partners could propose their ideas via a drawing. Eighteen propositions were designed and put into a

vote. The drawing of Tahina Raharison (GSDM, Madagascar) was elected as the best logo and will

therefore represent the ARChE_Net project. Afterwards, the calendar of the project’s 2013 activities

was exposed and discussed among the participants. The last presentations concerned the training

opportunities during the project and the ARChE_Net’s potential added value.

Logo designed by Tahina Raharison

This week was therefore the official starting point of the project. The objectives were for the

different project partners to get to know each other and to exchange, discuss information around the

ruminant systems’ adaptation to a changing environment; but not only. This week allowed the

creation of a network among the participants, network that will be the base for the project’s future

activities.

Next you can find the workshop’s global synthesis.

The Indian Ocean Region represents more than 13.500.000 km², about 1.362.000.000 people,

270.000.000 cattle, 100.000.000 buffalos, 65.000.000 sheep and a non-defined number of goats.

Within this region, there is a wide diversity of environmental changes that already affect or will affect

the ruminant production systems. Concerning the project’s countries, the environmental challenges

that were identified were the following: climate changes (Australia), rainfall variation (South Africa),

drought (Mozambique, Madagascar), soil fertility (Madagascar), land pressure (India), food demand

(India, Comoros), market (Mozambique), economic (Reunion Island) and social demand (Reunion

Island). Another important topic that was discussed, concerning the ruminant systems’

characterization, was the land issue and its diversity among the countries. While in India the livestock

owners often have to rely on road sides for their forages’ supply, Reunion and Comoros, either island

or group of islands, face a land shortage. The main land ownership types are either communal land,

as in Comoros, India, Madagascar and Mozambique; private land, as in Australia and Reunion Island;

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or a mix of the two types, as in South Africa. The countries where the ruminants rely on communal

land are mainly reared for subsistence while in the countries with a private land system, the

ruminant production are more intensive. South Africa has a mix of subsistence and intensive

ruminant production systems. Concerning the ruminant species that the countries decided to focus

on, both large and small ruminants will be represented in most of the countries, only Madagascar

and Reunion Island decided to focus on large ruminants (dairy and beef cattle; zebu for Madagascar).

We have seen that there is an important regional diversity, with different issues, different needs and

different priorities, but this diversity can be also considered as a project’s richness. The common

database, the monitoring tools (NIRS, NDVI, LASER) and the decision tool (Expert System) will be the

federative means, adapted/adaptable to each context. It will allow the qualification of the different

systems and the understanding of their efficiencies.

Besides, with this diverse context, ARChE_Net brings the opportunity to make a bridge between the

different knowledge and expertise. Within their local situations, each partner developed a different

working and expertise areas that can be valuable to the other countries. It means that experts on a

specific topic (e.g. by-product processing, soil fertility management) will have the chance to go to

other ARChE_Net partners for advisory and training work. These knowledge exchanges among the

different groups (research centers, educational institutions, governmental organizations and supply

chain organizations) will therefore create an important network, bringing even more richness to the

project.

This project could only be the first step towards a sustainable partnership among the ARChE_Net

participants, leading to other projects’ implementation and skills’ exchange that would help to the

Indian Ocean Region’s development.

ARChE_Net’s group picture