Le « productivisme » : une interprétation économique

Abstract

National audienceAlthough the word « productivism » is deprived of any precise meaning, it conveys the idea of agricultural systems oriented toward technical feat, harmful for environment, and unable to supply the “amenities” often expected from agriculture. For these reasons, public opinion tends to consider current agricultural processes as detrimental, and call for more traditional patterns, often urging farmers to adopt “less efficient” but “more desirable” techniques. Yet, in pure economic theory, it is impossible to state that either intensive (“productivist”) or, conversely “traditional” techniques are inefficient, although of course efficient does not necessarily mean desirable. In effect, during the 50’s, out of the second world war, anything which moved the food system away of famine looked excellent. Thus, at that time, price and policy messages were orienting farmers in the direction of increased production. With the help of research, French and European farmers efficiently responded to social demand expressions. Very soon, however, it became evident that the corresponding evolution of farming systems may lead to difficulties. Researchers were among the first to call for a reorientation, as soon as in the late 70’s. Unfortunately, policymakers were not aware of the problem. Nowadays, it is clear that the reasons which used to justify productivism are vanishing. Different orientations should therefore be sought for in farming techniques. It does not mean coming back to “the good old time”, in particular because true “traditional” techniques would not allow for a satisfactory production level, even tacking in account the present situation of “overproduction” in some of the agricultural sub branches. In addition, tacking care of environment and other sorts of amenities implies the development of radically new techniques, for, in this respect, old traditional are not necessarily more suitable than current “productivist” methods. Thus, additional research efforts are necessary. They should not be smaller than those which allowed us to escape the threat of famine.Quoique le mot « productivisme » ne désigne rien de très précis, il est utilisé depuis longtemps pour indiquer une dérive des systèmes de production agricoles vers la performance technique, sans beaucoup d’égard pour les considérations économiques élémentaires. Il est vrai que les messages transmis par les prix et la politique agricole dans les années 50 à 80 encourageaient cette dérive. Cela correspondait à la demande sociale de l’époque, et il y avait de bonnes raisons pour cela. Aujourd’hui, ces raisons ont disparu, et il faut donc s’orienter dans d’autres directions. Mais cela ne veut pas dire qu’il faut revenir « au bon vieux temps ». Au contraire, la prise en compte des besoins nouveaux concernant l’environnement et les aménités de toute sorte implique un effort de recherche au moins égal à celui qui nous a permis de sortir de la crainte de la famine