FORTEX: a new project to increase the impact of Common Agricultural Policy measures on the sustainability of extensive livestock farming, giving a voice to farmers

The Center of Studies and Research for Agricultural and Environmental Risk Management (CEIGRAM) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is launching the FORTEX Project: Strengthening the sustainability of extensive livestock farming in Spain, which aims to strengthen the sustainability of extensive livestock farming in Spain through the definition of proposals for improving the interventions of the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC) based on the best knowledge of the perceptions and behavior of livestock farmers in decision making.

The specific objectives of the project include:

• Mapping of interventions related to extensive livestock farming in the PEPAC.
• Analyze the perceptions and decision-making behavior of livestock farmers in the implementation of PEPAC’s extensive livestock interventions.
• Co-design, with stakeholders, proposals for improving PEPAC interventions, so that they contribute more ambitiously to the sustainability of extensive livestock farming.
• Communicate, disseminate and promote the science-policy-society dialogue in a way that contributes to extending the scientific impact of the project beyond its lifetime.

The FORTEX Project counts on a team with experience in sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems and with extensive knowledge of the CAP, who are used to working from a participatory approach, including in the research process the actors involved, in this case extensive livestock farmers of small ruminants and agricultural organizations. The principal investigator of the project is Bárbara Soriano, and she is supported by four other CEIGRAM researchers (Isabel Bardají, Paloma Esteve, Irene Blanco and Carlos G. Hernández), and by a researcher in training, Miguel Alcantud.

The project is funded by the Community of Madrid through the agreement-grant for the encouragement and promotion of research and technology transfer at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, in Line A, Emerging Doctors.

We will continue to share news about the Project in this section of the CEIGRAM website.