Grassland Farming and Land Management Systems in Mountainous Regions

Download or read book Grassland Farming and Land Management Systems in Mountainous Regions written by European Grassland Federation. International Symposium and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mountainous regions, which cover nearly half of the continent’s area, are in many ways of vital importance for the European population. They supply much of the continent ́s water, are centres of biological and cultural biodiversity, provide various opportunities for recreation/ farmers. But mountainous regions are characterised by permanent natural handicaps due to topographic and climatic restrictions on economic and agricultural activity. Because of the geographical constraints to farming, work productivity is on average lower by 28% in mountain areas compared with less favoured areas, and by 40% compared with lowlands. Agriculture in mountainous regions can therefore, in general, not compete with agriculture in advantaged lowlands and, with very few exceptions, cannot hope to become competitive in adopting intensive models in response to the growing global competition.