The engagement of young people in irrigated agriculture in North Africa and Thailand: Diverse pathways which occasionally meet public policies

Young people's lack of engagement in agriculture is of increasing concern in many emerging economies. A series of studies investigated this engagement in irrigated areas in North Africa and Thailand. The research analysed young people's aspirations, the constraints they face in accessing the resources they need to formalize their engagement, the strategies they implement to overcome these constraints, and to what extent they receive support from public programmes. Many young people in North Africa and Thailand would like to get involved in agriculture and create their own pathways based on their aspirations and the resources available to them. However, the constraints they face limit their capacity to acquire the farms they would like to have, i.e. more innovative and more profitable than the farms managed by the previous generation. Their engagement in agriculture often takes place in informal settings. The majority of young people who overcome these constraints do so without or with limited public support. More effective support for the engagement of a new generation in agriculture will not only require increased investment, but will also need to better account for the diversity of profiles and aspirations of the younger generation. This will be facilitated by increased participation of young people in the design of support programmes

Comment mobiliser les jeunes adhérents dans la gouvernance des coopératives agricoles ?

Cet article analyse le processus de mobilisation d’un groupe de jeunes adhérents et de salariés au sein d’une coopérative du Sud-Ouest français. Notre analyse s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une réflexion stratégique lancée par la coopérative, préoccupée par la problématique de sa gouvernance et la place que peuvent tenir les jeunes dans la construction de sa stratégie future. La réflexion est engagée dans un contexte de complexification des structures coopératives en France fragilisant leurs liens avec les adhérents. L’article présente ainsi la mise en œuvre concrète d’une démarche visant à développer la mobilisation des adhérents et des salariés au sein de cette coopérative. En cela, il a pour objectif d’opérationnaliser les résultats de la littérature scientifique existante en proposant la construction progressive d’une méthodologie de mise en œuvre. En tant que première étape dans cette démarche, notre article s’appuie sur une analyse qualitative basée sur la réalisation de plusieurs ateliers participatifs consacrés à un seul groupe restreint de jeunes adhérents et de salariés suivis toute une année. Le travail présenté met en évidence un faible environnement de mobilisation au sein de la coopérative, une situation répandue que l’on retrouve dans nombre d’entreprises exposées à des problématiques de gouvernance. Il montre également qu’il est possible de reconstruire un sentiment de mobilisation au fil des ateliers participatifs. Le sentiment de pouvoir agir, ou d’empowerment psychologique, impulsé dans le cadre de cette démarche participative, constitue une première phase vers la création d’un environnement plus favorable à la mobilisation collective, touchant un groupe élargi. Cet article pose ainsi un premier jalon en matière de démarche d’accompagnement qui offre aux coopératives des pistes et des leviers d’actions concrètes permettant d’améliorer leur gouvernanceThis article analyzes the process of mobilizing a group of young members and employees within an agricultural cooperative located in the southwest of France. This analysis is part of a strategic reflection launched by the cooperative, concerned by the governance issues and questioned by the place that youth can play in the construction of its future strategy. This reflection is initiated in a context where cooperative structures are becoming more complex leading to distancing links with their members especially. This article presents a concrete implementation of an approach aimed to develop the mobilization of members and employees in this cooperative. Such doing, it aims to operationalize the results of the existing scientific literature by proposing the gradual construction of an implementation methodology. As a first step, our approach is based on a qualitative analysis through the realization of several participatory workshops dedicated to a small group of young members and employees followed for a whole year. This work highlights the failure in the environment of mobilization within the cooperative, a widespread situation that is found in many companies faced to governance issues. This article also shows that it is possible to rebuild a sense of mobilization through participatory workshops. This feeling of being able to act, or psychological empowerment, driven by this participatory approach, is a first step towards creating an environment more favorable to collective mobilization. Thus, this article marks a first milestone in terms of a support approach that offers cooperatives avenues and levers of concrete actions to improve their governance

Intractable Hepatic Hydrothorax: A Successful Outcome following CPAP Treatment

Hepatic hydrothorax is an uncommon complication in patients with end-stage liver disease. It may result in dyspnoea, hypoxia and infection, and carries a poor prognosis. Initial treatment is based on a sodium-free diet together with diuretics. In case of recurrent hydrothorax, a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) or liver transplant should be considered. Here we describe an 80-year-old woman with decompensated liver cirrhosis related to NASH who presented with refractory hepatic hydrothorax. Treatment with CPAP resulted in a marked improvement in her pleural effusion

L'agroécologie dans les plaines irriguées d'Afrique du Nord. Cartographier les pratiques prometteuses et caractériser les logiques paysannes

Dans les plaines irriguées d’Afrique du Nord, la durabilité des ressources productives est soumise à de multiples menaces liées au modèle productiviste dominant, à savoir l’agriculture irriguée. Ces menaces–telles que la dégradation des sols et l’accès inégal aux ressources, aux marchés et à l’information–incitent les agriculteurs à mobiliser des ressources naturelles en voie d’épuisement, notamment le sol et l’eau, souvent de façon non durable sur le plan environnemental. Les agriculteurs adaptent parfois leurs stratégies en mettant en œuvre des pratiques agricoles alternatives afin de maintenir leurs systèmes agricoles et leurs revenus. Un groupe de chercheurs, mené par l’unité mixte de recherche G-EAU (Montpellier, France), a cartographié et analysé ces pratiques agricoles locales présentant un potentiel agroécologique. L’approche a consisté à réaliser des observations directes combinées à 150 entretiens avec des agriculteurs dans trois grandes régions de plaines irriguées d’Afrique du Nord, à savoir les plaines de Merguellil (Tunisie), du Haut-Cheliff (Algérie) et de Saiss (Maroc). Les résultats ont montré qu’il existe–ou est en train d’émerger–un large éventail de pratiques alternatives ayant un potentiel agroécologique, contrairement au modèle prédominant d’agriculture intensive

Diversité des exploitations laitières sous indication géographique en Savoies : vers une fragilisation des filières ?

For a few decades, the farming sector has faced major socioeconomic, societal, and climatic pressures, which has led to strategic changes in terms of practices. This article intends to study the case of the French agricultural sectors of geographical indications (PDO and PGI). The aim is to understand the diversity of practices in those farms and highlight their specifiers. Eight cheese quality chains have been studied in the Savoies territory (France), and 24 farmers were met. The typology realized shows that the desire to gain time and the professional identity of the farmers are key factors underlying the diversity of practices and strategies. The results also show an intensification of practices for some farmers, which interrogates the evolution of the specifications and future adaptation of these quality chains

The logics of farming practices: Mapping innovative and alternative practices with agroecological potentials in three irrigated plains in North Africa

In the irrigated plains of North Africa, the sustainability of productive resources is subject to several threats linked to the productivist model of irrigated agriculture. These threats prompt farmers to mobilize depleting productive resources. In order to reduce vulnerabilities and sustain their farming systems, farmers can update their adaptive strategies by setting-up innovative, alternative, farming practices that in conjunction enable them to sustain farm profitability. This study aims at mapping and analyzing such existing local farming practices with agroecological potentials. Our approach is based on direct observations combined with interviews with farmers in three irrigated plains in the Maghreb: the Merguellil, Upper Cheliff and Saiss plains, respectively in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. This study shows that, while intensive agricultural practices do characterize most farming systems, there co-exists, at the same time, a wide range of alternative practices that valorize ecological processes in some way or another. The most common practices are developed to improve soil fertility management (production of diluted liquid manure, organic fertilization, integration of leguminous plants into the rotation), to enhance land use efficiency (crop rotation, intercropping, relay intercropping, agroforestry) or to provide multiple ecosystem services (diversification, livestock integration). For example, and in the sense of “hitting two targets with one shot ”, farmers combine two or more crops on the same plot in order to (1) increase land-use efficiency to face land fragmentation linked to inheritance issues; (2) diversify their cropping strategy and spread out market-related risks; (3) reduce expensive production costs related to irrigation, chemical fertilization, etc. Our analysis of farmers' logics shows that economic reasons undoubtedly take precedence overall environmental concerns. This is why these innovative practices are considered as (1) access to low-input and low-cost strategies for small farmers; (2) as a pathway to international markets for agribusiness farmers, rather than agroecological practices per se. In plains like those of the Maghreb, intensive and conventional practices, associated with environmental threats, coexist with a wide variety of practices with agroecological potentials. Putting the farmer first and mobilizing their extensive local knowledge can contribute to the field of agroecology. Such practices may pave the way for a more sustainable agricultural development