CyRIC coordinatin Code: Re-farm project

The Cyprus Research & Innovation Center Ltd (CyRIC) is coordinating the project Code: Re-farm, which spans from the Netherlands to Greece and aims to reshape farming systems to respond to consumer demands while looking at animal health and welfare with safe and sustainable livestock practices across Europe.

Intensive livestock production systems (ILPS) are growing fast to satisfy the increasing demand. However, there is public scepticism about intensification in livestock production driven primarily by adverse links to environmental aspects and sustainable utilisation of natural resources. Moreover, ILPS are perceived as being detrimental to animal health and welfare, and may potentially undermine the quality of derived products. 

Extensive livestock production systems are low-input systems which are critical to support the development of rural communities. However, economic sustainability of such systems is often questioned as they are challenged by natural resource limitations, adverse climatic conditions and diseases. Products from extensive systems are considered of superior quality, but their resource-limited environment undermines their safety. 

Understanding key strengths & weaknesses of different farming systems is crucial for sustainable production and delivery of quality products. Therefore, strategic planning and a profitability analysis considering the system-oriented challenges and the added-value resulting from consumer-driven demands and niche products are necessary. The Code: Re-Farm research project focuses on poultry & goat production systems with the goal of understanding the links between husbandry systems and intrinsic quality of derived products. Novel technologies, combined with state-of-the-art laboratory techniques, will be exploited for assessing the intrinsic quality of products along the value chain (Product Lifecycle Monitoring), from farm to fork. The insights from this assessment, combined with insights on societal demands and sustainability of production processes will drive the development of alternative business models that meet the needs of sustainability and consumer-driven demands for product quality and animal welfare.

Nine combinations of breeds, production lines and farming systems will be studied during the project, five of them concerning poultry meat and eggs production and four of them concerning goat milk production. The poultry pilot farms are located in the Netherlands, while the goat pilot farms are in Italy, Greece and Switzerland.

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