Livestock systems are today at the heart of multiple transitions: agroecological transition, adaptation to climate change, economic resilience, increasing societal expectations, not to mention the issues of quality of life for farmers themselves. The “INOSYS Réseaux d’élevage” (for “INOvative SYStems Livestock Networks”) is a French initiative based on co-construction of knowledge and systemic analysis of livestock. For several decades, INOSYS has been monitoring the evolution of production systems, integrating economic, technical, environmental, and social dimensions, in close interaction with stakeholders on the ground.
A rooted and evolving Multi-Stakeholder Network
The INOSYS system is based on a decentralized, collaborative approach organized by sector and production area. Each regional sector network is structured around three key components:
- Field observation of a “reference farm”Production of technical and economic data from these reference farmsCollective coordination among field advisors
These reference farms, which are commercial operations, are selected based on a carefully considered typology of production systems that significantly contribute to national output. Selection also considers the farms’ overall consistency in terms of technical, economic, social, and environmental performance. These farms voluntarily participate in the system, sharing their operational data with the designated advisor, thus serving as benchmarks for their typological group.
The economic performance of these farms typically falls within the upper range of average results observed in the RICA (Farm Accountancy Data Network), while remaining achievable for most farmers.
The monitoring of farms relies on a comprehensive systems-based approach, with data collection covering a wide range of zootechnical, agronomic, economic, and social criterias. Long-term farm monitoring allows for the observation of trajectories and system evolutions within a context marked by structural and situational changes (INOSYS Réseaux d’élevage et al., 2024).
Today, the system connects a network of 1,500 livestock farmers, supported by 160 advisors from the Chambers of Agriculture and 30 engineers from the Livestock Institute (Institut de l’Élevage).
The system operates with shared governance between Chambres d’Agriculture France, the national coordination body for the Chambers of Agriculture, and the Livestock Institute (IDELE). This long-standing partnership ensures complementarity between field expertise and national technical expertise. For the Chambers of Agriculture, participating in the system allows their actions to be firmly grounded in the realities of farming operations, providing objective, shared benchmarks to support farmers in adapting their production systems.
Production and Dissemination of Technical and Economic References
One of the core pillars of INOSYS Réseaux d’élevage system lies in the free and accessible provision of technical and economic benchmarks. These resources take the form of databases, contextualized technical and economic indicators, multi-criteria sustainability assessments, and regional syntheses. These outputs are directly used in technical and strategic advisory services for livestock farmers, in support for new farm installations, and in both initial and continuing agricultural training. They play a fundamental role in disseminating the concepts of multi-performance, farm viability, and resilience, addressing today’s agroecological and socio-economic challenges.
The expertise and data generated by the system also serve as valuable resources for the agricultural profession. They are regularly used to support sectoral discussions, political negotiations, or to simulate the impacts of policy reforms. In parallel, they feed into a wide range of research and development projects at both national and European levels and are integrated into numerous interdisciplinary initiatives involving agricultural education institutions, technical institutes, and research organizations.
All these resources are made freely and publicly available, notably through a dedicated web portal providing access to over 250 typical farm models. They are also distributed via the websites of the French Livestock Institute (IDELE) and the Chambers of Agriculture, as well as on professional social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook) to reach a broader and more diverse audience.
The deployment of INOSYS Réseaux d’élevage Thematic Networks (TNs) was launched in 2022 as true incubators of knowledge and innovation, organized around 18 inter-regional and sometimes cross-sector thematic communities. They provide a space to share perspectives and experiences on common challenges, freeing themselves from traditional sectoral or geographic divisions.
A system designed to support advisory services and the agricultural transition
Today, advisors operate in an environment where increasing pressures stem from the growing complexity of environmental, climate, and economic challenges. They face contradictory expectations: on one hand, the diversification of their missions requires them to intervene on a wide range of topics; on the other, the increasing technicality of the issues demands continuous reinforcement of their expertise.
In this context—characterized by high staff turnover and reduced time available for monitoring and self-training—it is essential to rely on robust technical and economic references. These references provide a solid foundation that secures advisors’ actions by supplying reliable and objective data. They play a crucial role in supporting farmers and informing decision-making, particularly regarding the necessary adaptations to evolving livestock systems and public policies for periodic advisory services (annual technical follow-up, economic or regulatory advice), as well as for strategic or multi-year advisory services (conversion to organic farming, diversification, farm succession,…).
To enlarge the dissemination of markers and references, the INOSYS network built a web site dedicated to the advising and training actors. This platform enables visitors to consult and extract updated references (300 typical-cases) covering a wide range of domain and coming from the panel of farming systems models. By the way, the network adapts itself to provide advising and training actors in their day-to-day activities.
Conclusion: INOSYS, a Driver of Agricultural Transition
INOSYS Livestock Network perfectly illustrates the ongoing renewal of agricultural advisory services: more horizontal, more grounded, more interdisciplinary. It provides a framework to co-create useful, legitimate, and adapted knowledge in a changing agricultural world. By combining collective expertise, innovative tools, and territorial anchoring, the system positions itself as a key lever for future agroecological transitions.
Faced with changes in the agricultural sector, the references produced by INOSYS provide a solid foundation for tailored support—whether for one-off advice (regulatory, technical) or for strategic decisions (conversion, succession, diversification). Field-based data helps contextualize decisions and build realistic, sustainable pathways.
The way the INOSYS network operates now serves as a model for developing other multi-stakeholder reference systems, in sectors like arable crops, poultry, rabbit farming, and even viticulture. This momentum shows INOSYS’s capacity to inspire a new generation of observation, analysis, and co-construction networks, all in service of transforming agricultural systems.
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