Small Ruminants Projects in Leader-proder European Rural Development Programs in the South of Spain: a Survey Analysis

Mountain livestock systems, and particularly those based on breeding small ruminants, traditionally constituted a mainstay element of the local economy in Southeastern Spain's mountainous areas. With the rural exodus, which began in the early sixties, these systems were in critical danger of disappearing, due to, among other causes, the scarcity of shepherds and goatherds, the breakdown of an equilibrium between agriculture and animal farming, the small herd sizes, management and handling problems, etc. In spite of this, there have recently been several attempts by the local population to develop the mountain livestock sector by recovering autochthonous breeds, solving sanitary and livestock handling problems, and the commercial revalorisation of dairy products and their derivates. EU aid to the breeding of small ruminant animals, through among others LEADER and PRODER European Rural Development Programs, has no doubt helped promote these efforts. This paper, after a brief description of the small ruminants systems in the Penibetic region, comments the main results of a survey performed to the Local Action Groups (LAG) representatives, and analyses the extent of the inclusion of Southeastern Spain's mountain area livestock projects in the EU rural development programmes (LEADER and PRODER). Finally some conclusions and main strategic actions are drawn to take full advantage of the potential of small ruminant projects for the design of sustainable rural development processes in less favoured rural areas.