Chapter 11 . Developing Sustainable Livestock Production Systems . Outline of a Learning and Experimentation Strategy ( LES )

Over the past decade, the Dutch Government has increasingly emphasised the need for integral solutions to sustainability problems in the livestock production sector. This has led to the adoption of research approaches in line with Transition Management and system innovation that were developed in other domains. In 2008, the government set further policy targets of 5% and 100% sustainable livestock production at the farm level for 2011 and 2023 respectively. Policy measures included the stimulation of sustainable agriculture initiatives in the sector and demand for projects with a focus on system innovation. Two broad approaches may contribute to the realisation of these targets, the one top-down and the other bottom-up. Top-down approaches are usually research-led and characterised by the formulation of visions for future livestock production systems. At the same time, a broad variety of bottom-up initiatives are taken by farmers, who develop and try out new approaches to meet the challenges as they encounter them. Currently, the links between bottom-up and top-down processes are relatively weak. As both may contribute to system innovation, successfully combining the two approaches constitutes a crucial challenge. To this end we have developed what we call a “Learning and Experimentation Strategy” (LES) that is presented in this chapter.