Diversity of experimentation by farmers engaged in agroecology

Abstract

Agroecology questions the production of generic knowledge. Rather than searching for the best practices for large-scale transfer, it would be more efficient to help farmers find their own solutions. A promising activity for farmers is experimentation because it answers their needs and helps them learn. However, how agroecological practices are tested by farmers in their own experiments is still poorly known. In this study, we examined the short-term experimental activity, i.e., experiments carried out at a yearly scale in pre-defined fields. Seventeen farmers in south eastern France were surveyed. The farmers practiced conventional or organic farming and cultivated either arable or market garden crops. Experiments on agroecological practices were characterized, located along a timeline, and discussed with them. To conduct the interviews with the farmers, each experiment was described in three stages: (1) designing the experiment, (2) managing it in real time, and (3) evaluating the results of the experiment. The data collected in the interviews were first analyzed to build a descriptive framework of farmers' experiments, after which hierarchical cluster analysis was used to analyze the diversity of the farmers' experiments. Here, we propose for the first time a generic framework to describe farmers' experiments at a short time scale based on the consistency between the Design, Management, and Evaluation stages. We used the framework to characterize the diversity of farmers' experiments and identified four clusters. The originality of this work is both building a descriptive framework resulting from in-depth analyses of farmers' discourse and using statistical tools to identify and interpret the groups of experiments. Our results provide a better understanding of farmers' experiments and suggest tools and methods to help them experiment, a major challenge in the promotion of a large-scale agroecological transition.

Mobilizing Ecological Processes for Herbivore Production: Farmers and Researchers Learning Together

“…In analyzing these case studies, our goal was to question how researchers create actionable knowledge with farmers. We confirm the large scientific literature reviewed by Catalogna et al (2018), who concluded that it would be more efficient to help farmers find their own solutions than searching for the best practices for large-scale transfer. For this, using social learning and collaboration approaches (Warner, 2006;Armitage et al, 2008) has a large potential to promote interactions between farmers and researchers.…”

Work-related information needed by farmers for changing to sustainable cropping practices

“…Before or during the experiment on his/her farm?" Several authors have shown that field testing the new practice is a key stage of the change of practice (Collerette et al 1997;Chantre 2011;Toffolini et al 2016;Catalogna et al 2018). For each farmer interviewed, we identified and categorized the work-related changes, and for each category, we identified the various information items the farmers had used in connection with it.…”

“…But he also said it was always different from one farm to another, and that it was by experimenting and seeking solutions to problems as they arose that one could gradually reorganize the work, i.e., "who does what when," depending on each year's weather conditions. Several authors have identified innovation experiments as the key stage in the process of changing to a new practice (e.g., Collerette et al 1997;Chantre 2011;Toffolini et al 2016;Catalogna et al 2018).…”

“…Change is described as a multi-step process, including a stage of innovation experiments and not simply the decision to change practices. Most of the research in this respect has been performed by the social sciences (e.g., Collerette et al 1997), and more recently by agronomists (Chantre 2011, Toffolini et al 2016, Catalogna et al 2018.…”

Design workshop with farmers as a promising tool to support the introduction of diversifying crops within a territory: the case of camelina in northern France to supply a local biorefinery

“…The retrospective analysis of diverse situations in which farmers re-designed their cropping or farming systems, has highlighted: (i) the need to produce and hybridize different kinds of knowledge in action (empirical, scientific) on the object studied; and (ii) the importance of the way in which this knowledge is formalized and shared to stimulate design (Girard and Navarrete, 2005;Toffolini et al, 2017;Catalogna et al, 2018;Girard and Magda, 2018;Lacombe et al, 2018;Quinio et al, 2019;Salembier, 2019). For instance, for tomatoes grown in greenhouse, Navarrete et al (1997) showed that the translation of management indicators (e.g.…”