Intégrer l'adaptabilité dans l'analyse de la durabilité des exploitations apicoles

As in most farming systems, the adaptive capacity is a key factor for bee farming operations to copewith an uncertain environment. This adaptive capacity is based on several components of the farm: thecommercial choices, the work organisation or the colony management practices. This study focuses onthe flexibility of the management practices: can this flexibility be easily reconciled with othersustainability goals of the beekeeper, as work organisation issues or economic expectations? Toaddress this question, we developed a model of the main management practices and dynamics of acolony stock under the mathematical framework of viability theory. An economic goal and a work timeconstraint are considered along with an increasing flexibility goal. Different technical choices in themanagement practices are simulated. The economic goal and work time constraint were not alwayscompatible with the flexibility goal, partly depending on the technical choices. Flexibility thus appears asan additional constraint that can be difficult for the beekeeper to comply with.À l'échelle d'une exploitation apicole, la capacité d'adaptation est liée à différents aspects du fonctionnement : aux pratiques de gestion du cheptel, à des choix de commercialisation ou d'organisation. Cette capacité d'adaptation contribue à la durabilité de l'exploitation en lui permettant de composer avec un contexte variable, mais constitue également un élément de plus à considérer dans les compromis à trouver entre plusieurs enjeux de durabilité qui peuvent être antagonistes : viabilité économique, temps de travail… Pour révéler les difficultés possibles à concilier ces différents objectifs avec celui d'adaptabilité dans la gestion du renouvellement du cheptel, nous avons appliqué la théorie de la viabilité à une modélisation des principales options de gestion du renouvellement (gestion des reines, création de nouvelles colonies) et des dynamiques d'évolution du cheptel. Le modèle développé a permis d'étudier les conséquences de différentes pratiques sur la possibilité pour l'exploitation d'atteindre ses objectifs économiques et de temps de travail tout en maintenant un certain niveau d'adaptabilité. Certains choix techniques comme le nombre de reines disponibles (relativement au nombre de colonies de l'exploitation) apparaissent ainsi limiter en amont les options possibles de gestion du cheptel, voire la viabilité de l'exploitation dans certaines situations. L'adaptabilité de la gestion du cheptel apparaît donc comme une contrainte supplémentaire qu'il est parfois difficile de concilier avec d'autres objectifs économiques et sociaux. Abstract: Management flexibility and the sustainability of bee farming systems As in most farming systems, the adaptive capacity is a key factor for bee farming operations to cope with an uncertain environment. This adaptive capacity is based on several components of the farm: the commercial choices, the work organisation or the colony management practices. This study focuses on the flexibility of the management practices: can this flexibility be easily reconciled with other sustainability goals of the beekeeper, as work organisation issues or economic expectations? To address this question, we developed a model of the main management practices and dynamics of a colony stock under the mathematical framework of viability theory. An economic goal and a work time constraint are considered along with an increasing flexibility goal. Different technical choices in the management practices are simulated. The economic goal and work time constraint were not always compatible with the flexibility goal, partly depending on the technical choices. Flexibility thus appears as an additional constraint that can be difficult for the beekeeper to comply with

Bee farming system sustainability: An assessment framework in metropolitan France

International audienceBeekeeping is a long-standing production of livestock, which currently faces several technical and economic challenges such as high colony losses and highly variable honey yields. While the sustainability of current and future bee farms is at stake, the current research on agricultural sustainability assessment poorly considers the technical and management specificities of bee farming systems, systems that remain poorly understood. To fill this gap, we designed a sustainability assessment framework, in other words, a detailed and organised definition of the sustainability of bee farming systems, that identifies the current sustainability issues of these systems at the farm level. Through interviews and workshops, beekeepers and other stakeholders were involved in the design process to include a diversity of viewpoints on the definition of sustainability for bee farming systems, and to ensure the relevance of this assessment framework. The resulting framework highlights the current economic, social and environmental issues of bee farming systems and is organised into six dimensions. Three dimensions are farm-focused, and the three others consider the interactions of the farm with its environment, its territory and the beekeeping sector. That framework reveals the sustainability issues and factors that bee farming systems share with other agricultural sectors as well as their specific issues. In particular, the adaptive capacity of bee farming systems, including their flexibility, their diversity and the learning capacity of the beekeeper, appeared to be a key factor in their sustainability, as is the case for other pastoral systems that have to cope with unpredictable changes in the availability of their feed resources on which they have little direct control. In addition, land management practices partly determine the quality and availability of floral resources, which are hard to estimate, and thus present specific concerns and opportunities in their management. This work provides the first sustainability assessment framework that properly considers the current issues and specificities of bee farming systems, thus providing an outlook on the sustainability challenges of these systems and a basis for the development of an on-farm sustainability assessment tool

DURAPI – Vers une meilleure connaissance et un accompagnement technique des exploitations apicoles professionnelles : durabilité, stratégies de renouvellement du cheptel et conséquences sur le fonctionnement global de l’exploitation

Variability of the production context, colony losses: professional beekeepers have to cope with several environmental and socio-economic issues to ensure the sustainability of their farm. Thus, the DURAPI project aimed at developing a sustainability assessment framework for bee farming operations through a participatory design involving the stakeholders from the beekeeping sector. We also considered the part of the colony and queen replacement strategy, which is central in the colony management: the existing replacement strategies were identified and their possible consequences on the farm sustainability, in particular on the work organisation, were studied. These results allowed us to develop training tools for future beekeepers. This project also provides several support tools for beekeeping advisors.Variabilité du contexte de production, pertes de colonies d’abeilles : les exploitations apicoles font aujourd'hui face à différentes problématiques environnementales comme socio-économiques. Dans ce contexte, le projet DURAPI a visé à élaborer un cadre d’évaluation de la durabilité de ces exploitations, à travers une démarche participative qui a impliqué de nombreux acteurs de la filière. Parallèlement, la place de la gestion du renouvellement des colonies et des reines dans cette durabilité a été considérée. Les principales stratégies de renouvellement du cheptel mises en place dans les exploitations ont ainsi été identifiées afin d’ensuite caractériser leurs conséquences possibles sur cette durabilité de l’exploitation, notamment en termes de temps et d’organisation du travail. Ces différents résultats ont donné lieu à la création de supports pour les formateurs en apiculture. Les méthodes développées dans le cadre du projet peuvent par ailleurs être mobilisées pour l’appui aux apiculteurs ou futurs installés