Development of New Approaches and Technologies to Tackle the Global and Local Environmental Impact of the Pig Production WhilePreserving its Economic Competitiveness

The objectives of this ambitious project are i) - to provide evidence on the potential for approximating and linking crop and pig production in new, more sustainable and socially attractive systems to reduce agricultural waste and GHG emissions, including the proper treatment and use of slurry as fertilizer by combining crop and livestock production, and the usefulness of increasing consumption of more sustainable local protein crops and by-products (e.g., peas, beans, sunflower or rapeseed meal and processed animal proteins) and new varieties of rye or white sorghum as energy sources; ii) - develop equations and rapid digital tools to characterize nitrogen and phosphorus retention in the growing pig, and predict feed digestibility values and N and P balance in pigs; (iii) make use of the above information on feed values, nutrient requirements and N and P balances to develop a multi-objective formulation approach and excretion estimation model to better fit protein deposition curves,environmental impact and economic objectives under different scenarios (e.g., varying energy and protein prices and pork products, swine genotypes, feeding and management practices, health status, among others); iv. - provide updated data to improve the values and data to be used in the Best Available Techniques to align the objectives of RD 306/2020 in the pollutant emissions management system ECOGAN of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; v.- provide environmental Life Cycle Assessment indicators as input data to provide the multi-objective decision tool for the integrated management of the swine industry and its value chain.