Evaluation of investment needs to improve economic, environmental and social performances of pig farming[Évaluation des besoins d’investissements pour l’amélioration des performances économiques, environnementales et sociales des élevages de porcs]

French farms are facing increasing requirements on economic, environmental, health, social and community levels. Compliance with these requirements requires changing practices and often production systems. In the case of pig farming, opportunities to change practices and systems are rather limited, and pig farms require larger investments, particularly to modify buildings and the manure management chain. The FINAGRI research chair, co-piloted by the IAE in Paris and INRA, is interested in exploring innovative funding processes for these multi-performing investments. For this purpose, we developed a method to assess investment needs at the regional scale, which can be applied to a specific type of production, such as pig farming, or cross-cutting issues, such as farm manure management. The approach consists of five steps: (i) determine priority issues, (ii) identify changes in practices and investments that can be mobilized, (iii) build regional development scenarios to identify specific practices and investments to be used, (iv) assess the farms liable to engage in changes, and (v) estimate investment needs. The approach is based on development of a new database linking issues, practices (changes in practices), equipment (materials and buildings), and equipment costs. In the case of pig farming in Brittany, five main levers were chosen to address the deficit in the number of fattening places, decrease movement of pigs between farms, decrease gas emissions, and improve animal welfare. Given characteristics of Breton pig farms, the amount of potential investment is estimated at € 1.36 billion, of which € 680 million would be spent for the projects identified.