99 Water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis), an integral part of livestock agriculture in Greece since the beginning of 20 th century, had been providing services as well as products (milk and meat). These animals are the last representatives of the Mediterranean sub-type of the so called River buffalo (Georgoudis et al. 1998), and in this paper, term buffalo will only be used for them. Due to the mechanisation and intensification of agricultural production and also to the substitution of buffalo milk by milk produced by improved imported dairy cattle, the number of buffaloes has dramatically been decreasing during the last decades. Specifically, from the 70,000 animals counted at the end of the 50s (NSSG 1960) today only 3,128 heads remain (GBBLC 2011). These animals are distributed in the central, western and northern part of the country. However, the majority of this population (2,520 heads- 80% of the whole country’s buffalo population) is concentrated in the High Nature Value farming area (HNVFA) of the Lake Kerkini National Park in Northern Greece (GBBLC 2011, Andersen et al. 2004, Krautzer et al. 2011). For these reasons the area was selected to be studied. The buffalo farming system in the studied area is based on the utilization of natural grasslands and reflects more or less the sedentary extensive system of small ruminants, which has already been described by Yiakoulaki et al. (2003), de Rancourt et al. (2006) and Evangelou et al. (2008). In this system the animals have a permanent base, located around the Lake Kerkini, from where they move every morning to rangelands and return at night. Buffaloes graze in natural grasslands for 6–7 months but they also utilize alternative forage resources, including temporary pastures of annual winter cereals during early spring and crop residues during summer-early autumn (Tsiobani et al. 2012). In addition, farmers make extensive use of purchased feedstuffs, mainly roughage and concentrates, during the entire period of the year. Buffalo herds are pure and they are permanently herded. They are raised for milk and meat purposes (Georgoudis et al. 1998). Milk is used for the production of cream, butter, cheese and yoghurt. Meat and its products (minced meat, burgers, sausages and kavourmas) reach end users at butcher shops, local or not. Pluriactivity is a term commonly used across Europe and is defined as the phenomenon of farmers to have another gainful activity that can be a diversification of the holding or an activity not related to the farm that can take place on or off the farm (Evans and Ilbery 1993, Anseeuw and Laurent Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 83 (7): 763–767, July 2013/Article Pluriactivity and professionalism in buffalo farming system: The case of Northern Greece E TSIOBANI 1 , N HASANAGAS 2 , M YIAKOULAKI 3 and K PAPANIKOLAOU 4 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124 Greece Received: 1 August 2012; Accepted: 12 January 2013 ABSTRACT Pluriactivity and professionalism in the water buffalo farming system was investigated with standardized questionnaires and in-depth interviews with breeders at Lake Kerkini National Park, Greece, where 80% of the country’s buffalo population is raised. A distinction between total and complementary pluriactivity is proposed depending on including (or not) buffalo breeding as main occupation, respectively. Complementary pluriactivity appears to have synergistic effect and to encourage commerce of buffalo products to end users. Breeders not oriented to milk production tend to invest time in agriculture. Commerce seems to be encouraged by using private land for breeding (temporary pastures for early spring grazing and crop residues during summer-early autumn). Agriculture appears to be the usual alternative activity. The family character of holding and not the size of buffalo herd or the ownership status of agricultural land used for breeding seem to enhance professionalism. Simultaneous keeping of goat flocks and commerce weaken it. Key words: Buffalo farming system, Diversification synergy, Professionalism Present address: 1 Research Assistant (eltsiobani@ath.forthnet), 4 Professor (vkatsika@agro.auth.gr), Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece. 2 Head, District Forest Office (n.hasanagas@gmail.com), University Forest Administration, 42032 Pertouli-Trikala, Greece. 3 Assistant Professor, Department of Range Science (236), Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment (yiak@for.auth.gr).