Étude des modalités de conversion d'un système technique à la viticulture biologique en Languedoc-Roussillon (contribution au Projet AIDY)

Contact: [email protected] (Maître de stage). AIDY: Analyse Intégrée de la DYnamique des systèmes biophysiques, techniques et de décision lors de la conversion à la viticulture biologiqu

Peut-on concilier un faible usage de pesticides, une bonne performance économique et environnementale ? Analyse d’un réseau national de fermes de démonstration Ecophyto

EA GESTAD DOCT INRAFeeding an increasing world population with a sustainable agriculture is one of the greatest challenges of this century. The reduction of the reliance on pesticides is a critical aspect in this quest for sustainability. Whether cropping systems with reduced reliance on pesticides would be able to reconcile the various components of sustainability remains however a matter of debate. Are they as productive and profitable than current mainstream cropping systems? Here the objective is to study the feasibility of a reduced reliance on pesticides in France. We used a unique dataset from a national network of more than thousand arable commercial farms between 2009 and 2011. Launched in the framework of the Ecophyto political plan, the DEPHY-Ferme network includes commercial farms that are committed in pesticide reduction. They show contrasting pest management strategies across a wide range of French production situations. Based on this diversity, our results identify farming strategies with low pesticide use. These strategies rely on combinations of management techniques that vary from a context to another. We show that cropping systems with reduced reliance on pesticides are not less productive and less profitable than other systems in more than 75% of French situations. We assess their performances through seven indicators covering the various aspects of sustainability and we show that a low reliance on pesticides may be related to increased agricultural sustainability. At the national scale, a widespread transition of French agriculture toward a reduced reliance on pesticides would be beneficial both for the trade balance and the protein and energy self-sufficiency of France. Such a transition would imply deep changes for famers and for the whole farming sector, changes that must be better grasped in order to achieve the ambitious objectives of the Ecophyto plan for 2025.Nourrir une population humaine croissante par une agriculture durable est un des enjeux majeurs de ce siècle. La réduction de la dépendance aux pesticides des systèmes agricoles est un aspect central de cette quête de la durabilité agricole. La capacité de systèmes de culture économes en pesticides à concilier les différentes facettes de la durabilité reste néanmoins source de controverses. Sont-ils par exemple aussi productifs et rentables que les systèmes agricoles actuels? L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’étudier la faisabilité d’une réduction de la dépendance aux pesticides en France. Il s’appuie sur un jeu de données unique qui recense les pratiques de plus de 1000 exploitations agricoles françaises en grandes cultures et polyculture-élevage de 2009 à 2011. Sous l’égide du réseau DEPHY-Ferme mis en place dans le cadre du plan Ecophyto, ces exploitations sont engagées dans une dynamique de réduction d’usage de pesticides et affichent des stratégies contrastées dans des contextes biophysiques et socio-économiques très divers. Nos résultats valorisent cette diversité pour identifier des stratégies économes en pesticides. Ils montrent que les combinaisons de techniques de gestion sur lesquelles ces stratégies reposent ne sont pas les mêmes d’une situation de production à l’autre. Ces stratégies ne sont pas associées à de plus faibles productivités et rentabilités dans plus des trois quarts des situations françaises étudiées. L’évaluation de leurs performances sur une gamme de sept indicateurs couvrant différentes facettes de la durabilité confirme qu’une réduction de la dépendance aux pesticides irait dans le sens d’une plus grande durabilité des systèmes agricoles français. Une transition généralisée vers une moindre dépendance aux pesticides serait aussi bénéfique sur le plan national, tant pour la balance commerciale que pour l’autonomie protéique et énergétique de la France. Une telle transition nécessiterait des changements profonds pour l’agriculteur et pour les filières, changements qu’il reste nécessaire de mieux appréhender si l’on veut les accompagner et atteindre les objectifs ambitieux d’Ecophyto d’ici 2025

Methodological considerations for redesigning sustainable cropping systems: the value of data-mining large and detailed farm data sets at the cropping system level

National audienceRedesigning cropping and farming systems to enhance their sustainability is mainly addressed in scientific studies using experimental and modeling approaches. Large data sets collected from real farms allow for the development of innovative methods to produce generic knowledge. Data mining methods allow for the diversity of systems to be considered holistically and can take into account the diversity of production contexts to produce site-specific results. Based on the very few known studies using such methods to analyze the crop management strategies affecting pesticide use and their effect on farm performance, we advocate further investment in the development of large data sets that can support future research programs on farming syste

L’agriculture française peut-elle réduire sa dépendance aux pesticides ?

National audienc

Diversité des stratégies de gestion de la flore dans une diversité de situations de production. Analyse des performances du réseau Dephy Ferme

Prod 2018-236q GESTAD INRA EA DOCTNational audienc

DEPHY : a large network of farmers reducing their reliance on pesticides

International audienc

Transition of agriculture to agroecology-based systems: lessons from the French experience

International audienceFor more than one decade now, and partly as a response to European Commission directives, the French government is promoting a transition of agriculture to agroecology. Agroecology is here considered as a mode of agricultural production that is able to reconcile economic, environmental and social performances at the farm level. The national governmental plan ECOPHYTO is targeting a drastic decrease in the reliance on pesticides. This plan is one component of the ‘Agroecological project for France’ launched in year 2012, which is pointing out a systemic vision of technological changes. Even though these governmental initiatives were not successful in transforming the agriculture of the country so far – maybe because they had to face severe reluctances from some (not all) major farmers organizations –, they launched several interesting projects, among which the DEPHY farm network. This network is composed of 3000 volunteer farmers, working in a peer-to-peer mode with the help of advisers to demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the reliance on pesticides while maintaining – or even enhancing – the economic vitality of the agricultural sector.The first major result from DEPHY was that differences in strategical options, based on various combinations of crop management techniques designed at the farming system level, explained most of the huge differences in the pesticide input level across framers, for similar production situations. The second – significant – result was that, in most production situations, those farms with agroecology-based cropping systems produced similar or even higher levels of agricultural outputs (incidentally more diversified), and similar or higher profits, as compared to standard farms based on high chemical inputs. Scale matters very much in those results, as what is true at the farm level might be quite different at the crop level. For example, wheat yields (expressed as tons per ha) were shown to be lower in low input management systems, because technical measures decreasing pest pressures (late sowing with resistant cultivars and moderate fertilization) tend to decrease also the yield potential. However, the decrease in wheat yield could be compensated for by the decrease in input costs, and could be considered a minor feature for farm profitability. Based on such results, the DEPHY network is promoting changes in the way of advising farmers, more focused on long term and systemic approaches, and targeting explicitly farm profitability rather than individual crop yield. Of course, agroecology-based farming systems increases the complexity of farm management. Pioneer farmers of the DEPHY network are not representative of farmers’ population. They are well educated and do invest a lot in knowledge acquisition and peer-to-peer training. They most often also show a high motivation for their job and for communicating about their personal experience.Upscaling the results of the DEPHY network at the country level provided information about the potential consequences of the widespread adoption of agroecology-based cropping systems in France. Pesticide use would decrease by about 40%. The overall agricultural production would increase, but wheat and barley production (and therefore exports) would decrease (partly because of lower yields, mostly because of a decrease in areas sown with wheat and barley). The local production of plant proteins for cattle feeding would increase, hence decreasing the need for foreign protein import. This, along with the decrease in fertilizer inputs, would offset the decrease in cereal export, and the overall agricultural trade balance would improve at the country level. These results are questioning the model of a trade balance mostly boosted by cereal exports. That is the main reason why the current organization of the agricultural sector (based on targets of minimizing diversity, maximizing yield to maximize exports) is a major hindrance for any large-scale adoption of agroecology-based farming systems. Nicolas Munier-Jolain is an agronomist of cropping/farming systems at INRA, research unit Agroecology, in Dijon, France. For more than two decades, he has been working on the issue of decreasing the reliance on pesticides in arable cropping systems in France, focusing mostly on weed management. His research on Integrated Weed Management is based on experimental activities (long term cropping system experiments), modelling weed communities as affected by cropping systems, and data mining using data sets produced by participative farm networks. Since 2011, he has worked with the farmers and advisers involved in reducing pestic

Grandes Cultures : réduire les herbicides et le glyphosate. Enseignements des résultats d'expérimentation et du réseau Dephy

National audienc

L’agriculture française peut-elle réduire sa dépendance aux pesticides ?

International audienc