The role of farmer collectives developing territorialized supply chains on the agroecological transition trajectories of farms: analysis using the quantified narratives method

Abstract

Collective action among farmers is regularly presented as a driver for the adoption of agroecological practices on farms. This study proposes to extend the analysis of relational drivers in the implementation of changes in practices beyond peer groups, by looking at their collective organization around territorialized supply chains involving other actors. More specifically, this paper proposes to study the role that this collective organization around territorial supply chains plays in the changes toward agroecological practices carried out on farms.The study of the individual farm trajectories as a chain of events is an approach that allows the understanding and analysis of changes in practices. As we are interested in coordination mechanisms based on interactions between actors as a driver for agroecological transition, we mobilize the framework and tools of social network analysis. In particular, in order to analyse the relational drivers in the trajectories of changes practices, we mobilize the relational chain approach through the method of quantified narratives. This approach allows us to understand changes in practices on farms as collective actions, through the study of relationships activated by farmers in order to have access to different types of resources during their trajectory. Thus, our work feeds the literature mobilizing the method of quantified narratives for the analysis of farm transition trajectories, which we modulate by focusing on the trajectory of a particular cropping system analysed through the agronomic and socio-economic principles of agroecology. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight farmers who are members of a territorial organic wheat-flour- bread supply chain collective that includes a miller and a baker, all located in the plain of Limagne (Puy-de-Dôme, France). Following these interviews focused on their changes in wheat-growing practices, we identified five phases of agronomic and socio-economic coherence in their trajectories, that we evaluated through the prism of the agroecological principles. We then identified the relationships activated by the farmers to access the various resources needed to carry out the changes in practices during these different phases. Based on their trajectories, a typology of farms was created. This typology helps to understand the different roles played by farmers’ collectives developing territorial supply chains in the different types of farms, by analysing during which phases of the trajectory they intervene, to provide access to which resources, in articulation with which other actors. Although the interests for participation vary between the different types of farms, it appears that the farmers’ collective developing territorial supply chains systematically give access to commercial, cognitive, social and material resources. As a result, they favour access to strategic resources on the farms, making it possible to couple changes in agricultural practices and their economic valorisation. These resources contribute to a change in the farmers' posture during their trajectory, moving from a role of raw material producers to a role of co-designers of agroecological products. L'action collective entre agriculteurs est régulièrement présentée comme un levier pour la mise en oeuvre de changements de pratiques agroécologiques dans les exploitations agricoles. Cette étude propose d'ouvrir l'analyse des déterminants relationnels dans l'adoption de changements de pratiques au-delà des groupes de pairs en s'intéressant à leur organisation collective autour de filières territoriales faisant intervenir d'autres acteurs. Pour ce faire, la méthode des narrations quantifiées a été mobilisée dans le cadre d'entretiens semi-directifs menés auprès des 8 agriculteurs membres d'un collectif filière territoriale intégrant un meunier et un boulanger. L'analyse de ces trajectoires a permis la création d'une typologie des fermes favorisant la compréhension du rôle que joue le collectif filière territoriale dans les changements de pratiques menés par ses différents membres. Bien que les intérêts pour la participation au collectif varient entre les différents types de fermes, il ressort que le collectif donne systématiquement accès à des ressources tant commerciales, que cognitives, sociales et matérielles. De ce fait, le collectif favorise l'accès à des ressources stratégiques dans les exploitations agricoles permettant de coupler la mise en oeuvre de changements de pratiques agricoles et leur valorisation économique. Ces ressources contribuent à un changement de posture des agriculteurs au cours de leur trajectoire, passant d'un rôle d'exécutants producteurs de matières premières à un rôle de coconcepteurs de produits agroécologiques.