Research project DairyPathS

Summary

DairyPathS rethinks dairy farming towards agroecological transition to ensure sustainability, resilience, and diversity. The project supports the co-design, evaluation, and scaling of regionally adapted agroecological practices, aiming to better integrate livestock, grasslands, crops and agroforestry, enhancing diversity, resilience and sustainability. Grounded in principles such as diversity, circularity, soil and animal health, participation and co-creation of knowledge, DairyPathS reduces input dependence and environmental pressures while improving ecosystem services and farm viability.

A network of regional Living Labs (LLs), further developed or newly established in diverse agro-climatic and socio-economic contexts across Europe, is at the heart of DairyPathS: Italy, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark. These LLs serve as participatory platforms where farmers, researchers, advisors, and policy actors co-design, assess and validate agroecology scenarios for dairy farming tailored to local realities, generating actionable pathways for change. These scenarios integrate both operational and strategic interventions, for instance crop and landscape diversification, reduced stocking rates and agroforestry. DairyPathS team and LL participants will jointly evaluate agroecology scenarios through the DEXI-Dairy multi-criteria sustainability assessment tool, focusing on environmental, economic, and social pillars. The project will simulate the effects of different agroecologyl scenarios compared to baseline dairy farming systems, including the assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services, facilitating informed decision-making in the transition to agroecology. Furthermore, DairyPathS will provide scientific evidence, incorporate farmers’ perceptions and behavior, and enhance the science-policy dialogue through policy-oriented results, based on the analysis of the barriers to the adoption of agroecology and the assessment of trade-offs between different sustainability indicators.

A core component of the project is the Living Lab approach in WP2. These LLs will facilitate consensus workshops, design cycles with stakeholder groups, and provide valuable input for all project’s work packages. WP3 will simulate baseline and agroecology scenarios, incorporating the impacts of future climate change using crop-livestock and agent-based modeling to integrate behavioral variables into the system design. WP4 will focus on evaluating biodiversity and related ecosystem services under these scenarios, selecting appropriate methodologies through stakeholder engagement. WP5 will integrate environmental, economic, and social assessments, and analyse synergies and trade-offs using an improved DEXi-Dairy tool with fuzzy logic and novel sustainability indicators. WP6 will lead dissemination efforts, including an interactive online platform integrating multicriteria assessment and modeling outputs, that enables stakeholders, consumers, and policymakers to explore agroecology-based solutions for sustainable dairy farming in diverse European contexts.

Each LL will conclude with a local reflection on future continuation beyond DairyPathS. Their experience will be synthesised into actionable recommendations and final participatory strategy reports to support uptake and scaling of agroecological approaches in European dairy farming systems.