Massot, A. ( 2015) The Agriculture of the Azores Islands, Submitted to European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on the Occasion of the Delegation to the Azores Islands.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Dairy Farming Systems’ Adaptation to Climate Change

  AUTHORS: Emiliana Silva, Armando Brito Mendes, Henrique José Duarte Rosa

  KEYWORDS: Climate Change, Dairy, Economic Sustainability, Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  JOURNAL NAME: Agricultural Sciences, Vol.7 No.3, March 23, 2016

  ABSTRACT: The measure of climate change in dairy farms can be achieved by using the emissions of methane by the ruminants converted in CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq). In order to know the impact of future quotes of methane in the Azorean dairy milk farms, a decision model is built to the Azorean intensive grazing system of dairy farms. Some scenarios of methane levels reductions from 10 to 75% are considered and their impact is evaluated upon dairy farms income, level of CO2-eq emissions and intensity level of grazing system. The results have shown that any reduction of the methane level always implies a consequent decrease in income. If the CO2-eq has to be limited than there is the need to find alternative income activities for farmers in order to preserve economic sustainability.