The PastInnova project aims to deliver innovations and sustainable business and organizational models for profitable and resilient pastoral farms and value chains increasing smallholders’ potentials for market access and value adding, contributing to revitalizing mountain and marginal areas and fulfilling social expectations.

The key objective of PASTINNOVA is to re-enforce the sustainability, profitability and resilience of small pastoral farms, by setting up innovations, business and organizational models (IBM) to valorise their full potential as drivers towards agro-ecological transition in livestock production. PASTINNOVA examines pastoral systems which – despite the multiple challenges they face – are able to provide a broad array of ecosystem services (ES) along with high-quality products (dairy, meat, wool and processed) in a variety of agro-ecological and socio-economic Mediterranean settings. The project proposes a holistic interdisciplinary approach to improve the weak positioning of pastoral smallholders in Value Chains of Pastoral products (VCP), with particular focus on vulnerable groups (e.g. women, young farmers, migrant workers).

Based on the Living Laboratories (LL) approach, a common network on “Pastoral actors and VCP” will be established to co-create solutions for farmer organizations, farm management and VCP through the integration of needs, capacities and experiences of actors (e.g. farmers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, retailers, policy makers, researchers). Selected IBM will be tested and implemented in small-scale and assessed for their sustainability (economic, social, environmental). This way, PASTINNOVA will deliver upscaled, accessible and profitable IBM adapted to the characteristics of Mediterranean pastoralists and territories and propose a supportive policy framework and arrangements for access to markets. PASTINNOVA envisages to upscale the role of pastoralism by pooling a rich variety of existing resources of project partners, their experience and networks, including the outputs of numerous pastoral-related projects.