A European wide network of livestock advisors well embedded in their AKIS ecosystems and exchanging practical knowledge in the long-term for sustainable livestock production

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly.

Sustainable Livestock Production must play a substantial role to engage the EU in green transition while ensuring farmers’ incomes and quality of life.

The main objective of LIVENET is to establish and build capacity of a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions for Sustainable Livestock Production by farmers.

The project will achieve this through: 1) the establishment and development of an EU network of livestock advisors, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States, the UK and Switzerland.

To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 10+1 National Networks will be created by the project partners and will engage with 18 Associated Networks through a twining program.

The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating 10 EU regional clusters, the major livestock sectors and the main thematic challenges faced by breeders; 2) the collection, selection, evaluation, adaptation and validation of context-based Innovative Advisory Practices (IAPs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable and will be replicated across the EU, 3) the wide scaling of solutions through trainings, demo-events and other activities towards advisors, students and value chain actors to promote the adoption of the IAPs. 4) the connection with other regional, national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers for better integration of livestock advisory organisations in the AKISs.

The project embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 20 organisations with a vast experience in advisory and sustainable livestock production representing a diversity of AKIS stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, value chain actors).