Xavier Coquil

Transition to self-sufficient mixed crop–dairy farming systems

While plains favorable to agriculture are still dominated by specialized and intensive agriculture, self-sufficient mixed crop-dairy farming systems increasingly attract policy makers and scientists attention. Owing to their limited use of purchased inputs, they can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. Furthermore, self-sufficient farming tends to be linked with a search for autonomy in decision-making, i.e., farmers developing their own technical reference framework. Such farming systems can thus also contribute to alternative development pathways of rural territories. In this paper, we analyze how ten intensive mixed crop–dairy farms have progressively evolved toward more self-sufficient and autonomous systems. Through formalizing farmers transition in action , we identified 34 tools that the farmers implemented making them reflect on their farming system, shift socio-professional networks, reorganize work routines, and steer the evolution of their production practices. For example, they created temporary pastures in crop rotation, introduced rotational pastures, observed their herds to adjust their feed and keep the animals in good health, and they limited expenditures to manage their cash flow. Which tools were used and when they were used depends on what is meaningful to them at various stages of the transition. Our analysis of transitions in action has three original features: it is centered on the transition as perceived by the actors who experience and manage it; it proposes a long-term conceptualization of the dynamics of farming systems, based on the farmers initiative and creativity; and it highlights tools implemented by farmers during the transition to self-sufficiency and autonomy.

Experiencing Organic Mixed Crop Dairy Systems: A Step-by-Step Design Centred on a Long-term Experiment

To provide more sustainability for their farming activity, farmers may attempt to redesign it according to their perception of their global environment. This paper focuses on the step-by-step design approach. The main objective of this approach is to produce resources to empower farmers to develop a more sustainable farming activity. We postulate that self-sufficient agricultural systems designed on the basis of natural land properties will generate sustainable farming activity. The methodology developed is anthropocentric and centred on a long-term experiment. Two organic and self-sufficient mixed-crop dairy systems were designed in 2004 at the INRA ASTER-Mirecourt Experimental Station. Research scientists designed and redesigned the systems, step-by-step, according to their perception of the natural properties of their agro-ecological environment. Since 2005, the two systems have been evolving by repairing system malfunctions or by improving their self-sufficiency. Step-by-step design is an approach based on methodologies that create experience in situations. This approach has proven its relevance to create knowledge for (i) the transition of farming systems towards more self-sufficient forms of agricultural activity, and (ii) the adaptation of systems to environmental fluctuations.

Professional transitions towards sustainable farming systems: The development of farmers’ professional worlds

BACKGROUNDnWhile farming in France and generally in Europe is continuing to intensify, at the expense of its environmental sustainability, promising alternatives are emerging.nnnOBJECTIVEnThe processes whereby farmers change and transform their own work, to shift from an intensive mode of production to a self-sufficient and autonomous one, need to be formalized if we are to further our understanding of why and how these forms of sustainable farming activity emerge.nnnMETHODSnWe use the development of professional worlds theory, a systemic representation of workers activity, whereby their experience is formalized. This can be explained as the praxis1, conceptual and axiological underpinnings form a system with the object of the action. The development of a professional world is analyzed according to the evolution of its components and the search for pragmatic coherence within it. We analyzed professional transitions towards self-sufficient and autonomous mixed farming through a case study.nnnRESULTSnOur findings showed that the transition is initiated by the discovery of the unthinkable, awareness of a discrepancy between what the farmers think and what they do, the appearance of problems, and the response to external constraints. Professional transition is a non-teleological and non-incremental process; it corresponds to a comparison with reality, and a resolution of difficulties. This process is stimulated by the use of artifacts instrumented by the farmers.nnnCONCLUSIONnNew perspectives are opened up by this formalization of transitions, in terms of (i) support towards sustainable farming and (ii) the design of sustainable farming systems.

Questioning the work of farmers, advisors, teachers and researchers in agro-ecological transition. A review

The French Ministry of Agriculture has called for agro-ecological transitions that reconcile farming and the environment. In this review, we examine the transformations of farmers and AKIS (Agriculture Knowledge Innovation System) actors’ work during agro-ecological transitions, and argue that the content, organization, and aim of farmers’ work are influenced by agricultural training, agricultural development, and discussions between peers, research, and regulations. Our main findings concern those transformations. The first finding was that there is an increasing expression of local particularities (situated ecological processes, micro-climates, etc.) and farmers’ singularities (e.g., relationship with nature). These particularities challenge AKIS players’ forms of organization and intervention, which used to be built on generic knowledge. Our second finding was that AKIS players have to consider their action as one potential contribution to the development of farmers’ experience: Their interventions become part of the flow of the farmer’s activities. The question for AKIS players is then: How can farmers’ own discovery of their natural and technical environment from new perspectives be facilitated? Thirdly, we found that transformations of work are systemic: The “doing”, the knowledge applied, and the values and norms to which subjects refer change. Facilitating transition can no longer be considered as a problem of knowledge availability. Fourthly, production of agronomic knowledge and ways in which it is disseminated are being challenged. Not only does knowledge have to be certified by scientific norms and methods, it has also to be valued by actors if it is to have an impact. The prescriptive relationship of science and AKIS players towards farmers is likewise challenged. This review raises many questions: Do agro-ecological transitions contribute to reorienting the development of farmers’ activity? Are agro-ecological transitions conducive to the development of sustainable farm work? What transformations of AKIS players’ work are needed to better support agro-ecological transitions?