Preface

Local pig breeds, like many other traditional agricultural genetic resources, have been abandoned due to their lower productivity and competitiveness, which means that they do not correspond to the industrial concept of an agricultural system. Nowadays the majority of local pig breeds are still endangered despite increased awareness of the importance of biotic diversity and general societal support for the preservation of local genetic resources. The best strategy for preservation of breeds is the one that makes them self-sustaining; however, this is seldom attained in local pig breeds and the intervention of public bodies by means of subsidies is often considered indispensable. Increasing the market potential and value of their products is a key strategy to support in situ conservation of breeds. Exploitation of local pig breeds in their specific production systems, which makes use of local feeding resources and offers more resilience, also provides products with attributes that are demanded and appreciated by consumers, constituting the basis for sustainable pork chains. The economic potential of local breeds and their production systems is far from being optimally exploited and represents a challenge and opportunity for the future of the pig sector.

In the present work, which is part of the project TREASURE dedicated to multicriteria evaluation of local pig breeds, we collected essential available information about the history of breeds, and current census, geographical location, and production systems, as well as data on productive traits of the local pig breeds involved in the project. This information was collected by project partners from the available literature or unpublished data, or was generated within the experiments performed in the project. The book is divided into the introductory chapter presenting the concept and ambition of project TREASURE, followed by chapters presenting individual local breeds involved in the project. The concluding chapter provides an analytical review of their productive performance.

Local pig breeds together with their production systems represent a special value for the development of pig production that answers societal demands for sustainability and enables a diversification of agricultural activities, and thus development of regional agro-food sector economies. We hope that with this book, as one of the important results of the project, we have contributed to the knowledge needed for progress in the use of local pig breeds.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the enormous efforts of the authors (project partners) who contributed to this collection of data and breed descriptions, as well as to the numerous reviewers who helped us with very valuable comments. This

work was possible due to funding received from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 634476).

> **Marjeta Čandek-Potokar and Rosa Nieto (Editors)** Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Spanish National Research Council, EEZ Zaidin, Granada, Spain

This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 634476 for project with acronym TREASURE. The content of this book reflects only the authors´ view and the European Union Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

**1**

Section 1

Introduction

Section 1 Introduction

**3**

**Chapter 1**

TREASURE

**1. Background**

Introductory Chapter: Concept

*Marjeta Čandek-Potokar, Luca Fontanesi, Bénédicte Lebret,* 

*José M. Gil, Cristina Ovilo, Rosa Nieto, Ana Fernandez,* 

*Carolina Pugliese, Maria-Angels Oliver and Riccardo Bozzi*

After the Second World War, agricultural systems in the western society undertook an "industrial strategy" of intensification, specialization and largescale production. Having experienced negative side effects (social, ethical and environmental) of efficiency-driven animal production systems, the persistency or sustainability became important. "Sustainability of agricultural system" is based on holistic philosophy and denotes resource efficiency and functional integrity and concerns environment, genetic diversity, ethical and social aspects and economic value [1]. Capital-driven animal husbandry systems led to abandoning of many pig breeds (and other livestock species), which were not profitable and became endangered. In the context of the (internationally binding) preservation of biotic diversity, the interest for autochthonous (local) breeds was revived in the past 30 years. In spite of that, these breeds are still largely supported by special policy mechanisms in order to ensure their preservation [2]. This is one of the critical points for the future because most of the local breeds are presently not managed in a secure way and depend upon financial support from the governments for preservation programmes. The best conservation strategy is the one that makes the breed self-sustaining without the use of external subsidies [3]. Theoretically, the self-sustainable condition of a local pig breed should be reached by the exploitation (sale) of products characterized by an extra added value, which in return assures breeding of a sufficient number of animals to have an adequate genetic diversity [4]. Nevertheless, this condition is seldom attained in the local pig breeds, and the intervention of public bodies is often considered essential for preservation [5]. A sustainable use of local breeds is possible with better exploitation of the reputation of local breeds (extrinsic cues) as well as quality attributes associated with their products (intrinsic cues). Studies show that for consumers, the importance of extrinsic cues for quality inference is increasing [6], while the intrinsic cues are important as a limiting factor of the acceptability and repurchase. Therefore, the activities to increase market potential and value of products are the key strategy in support of *in situ* conservation of the breed. The link between local breed, geographical area, and the product quality (its intrinsic cues) is important for the success of commercial strategies as demonstrated by the examples in Spain or Portugal, where the traditional local pigs (Iberian in Spain and Alentejano in Portugal) are kept in special

and Ambition of Project

#### **Chapter 1**
