REVE (REconnexion Végétal - Elevage)

The intensification of agriculture and the specialisation of farms, sectors and production basins, facilitated by the massive use of synthetic inputs, have resulted in the decoupling of plant and animal production. While the issues surrounding agriculture are now posed in new terms (reduction of inputs, GHG emissions and phytosanitary products, improvement of the food autonomy of livestock farms, relocation of production to supply cities, etc.), the development of agricultural systems that would enable biogeochemical cycles to be reconnected in a sustainable manner is a promising way of meeting these challenges. Initiatives aimed at reconnecting animal and plant production at different scales are emerging but currently remain scattered, which makes it impossible to evaluate and disseminate them. The four INRAE GIS Filières (Avenir Elevages, Grandes Cultures, Fruits, Légumes-PIClég), ACTA and the RMT Spicee have joined forces to identify the research and R&D initiatives already underway in these recoupling avenues from upstream to downstream of the sectors. The aim is to better identify the possibilities for reconnection, the levers and obstacles and, in the long term, to have methods for evaluating the performance of projects involving crop/livestock complementarity.

The REVE project, which has now been completed, aimed to take stock of the state of the art on the subject, to list the experiments and initiatives that have already been started, in order to analyse the knowledge acquired and to highlight the major issues that require further study. A seminar was organised in April 2023 to present (i) a typology of crop/livestock reconnection initiatives; (ii) a summary of the effect of introducing animals into perennial crops; and (iii) a study analysing the obstacles and levers to implementing these recouplings.