BOVISOL Project: Breeding and Management Practices of Indigenous Bovine Breeds: Solutions towards a Sustainable Future

Abstract

In order to deal with the effects of globalization, urbanization, increase in world population, global warming, and climate change; and according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 targets, which aim to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, it is urgently needed to transform our agriculture and livestock farming systems by taking into account the environmental considerations. The Breeding and management practices of indigenous bovine breeds: Solutions towards a sustainable future (BOVISOL) project is a scientific cooperation between three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Tunisia and Algeria) supported and funded by the European Commission under the European Research Area Networks (ERA-NET) scheme of the 7th Framework Programme. This project has been formed around the hypothesis that the local bovine breeds must be preserved since they possess a valuable genetic pool, and they are a part of the landscape and the biodiversity of rural areas. Moreover, their products (milk, cheese, meat, etc.) could contribute significantly to the local economies as they could easily be associated with recent food trends like “local” and “slow food”, which are considered today, as, not only a mean of nutrition, but also a way of living and a part of people’s identity. BOVISOL project aims to: (i) identify the local breeds and populations in a national level, (ii) describe the existing farm and breeding practices, (iii) analyze the quality of the main local animal products, (iv) propose solutions that will promote the sustainability of the traditional farming systems, especially nowadays that climate change proposes new challenges on animal production, and (v) disseminate the solutions on all the levels of the sector (farmers, scientists, local communities, governmental agencies).