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While agronomists traditionally consider the level of organization of the plot or the farm in their approaches, the consideration of a higher level of organization such as the territory has been continually advocated for 20 years (Boiffin 2004). Indeed, agriculture is facing challenges such as environmental issues (climate change, natural resource management, biodiversity preservation) or social issues (peri-urban context, local food sovereignty, multifunctionality of agriculture). Those challenges pertain to levels of organization that do not coincide with the plot or the farm, and concern actors beyond farmers. Therefore, a territorial approach is required and must be multidisciplinary, involving agronomists, geographers, geomaticians, ecologists, and sociologist to tackle its various dimensions.
The goal of this study is to objectify the description of cropping systems that compose a given territory. Here, the territory is considered as a dynamic level of organization defined by both physical characteristics and socio-cultural constructions (i.e. created and maintained by interactions among the various actors involved), (Boiffin 2004). All these components are covered by few delimitations, except this based on landscapes that are built through the ecological and sociological relationships they harbour. In France, a delimitation into landscape units was developed to characterize all its landscapes (Franchi et al. 2015).
The question for agronomists is how to delimited the representativeness areas of a given cropping system with help of landscape unit. We used the SYPPRE experimental platforms as case studies to discuss the representativeness of their reference systems, established according to local experts, in relation to the cropping systems in the area under consideration. This case study presented here focuses more precisely on the SYPPRE Lauragais platform in Southwestern France (Toqué et al. 2015). The approach is built around iterative co-design workshops (Figure 1), leading to the delimitation of the landscape unit based on cantons (an administrative unit covering several municipalities that proves to be operational). The use of RPG Explorer software (Martin et al. 2016) then allows us to analyse the rotations practised and their proportion within the representativeness area.
The Lauragais landscape unit delimits a homogeneous agricultural area in clay-limestone slope areas. It is surrounded to the North by vineyard, to the West by the Toulouse urban area, and to the east by pasture for livestock farming. To the South, the slope areas give way to valleys. Characterization of cropping systems shows that the SYPPRE reference system based on a sunflower-cereal rotation is predominant in the territory, covering 57% of the systems (Figure 2). However, this rotation is extended with an additional crop (barley, rapeseed, maize etc.) on 45% of the surfaces.
Through the various workshops, the landscape unit emerged as a relevant delimitation choice for approaching territories and questioning the representativeness of cropping systems. It indeed gained conceptual adherence and practical appropriation. Characterization of cropping systems allowed local experts to assert or reposition their vision and future scenarios for their agricultural territory. In some cases, the workshops have led to new questions (e.g water management) for a better understanding of territorial systems. However, we are aware of the spatial limitations to which recommendations from system trials can be applied. The next step of this work will focus on delineating relevance areas: areas which are concerned by similar problems of a point of interest. The hypothesis is that work on representativeness area conducted on SYPPRE platforms can be extrapolated to relevance area (e.g. soil erosion) in different territories. In any case, such a work of territory delimitation will the starting point of multidisciplinary study.
Acknowledgments: French consortium on arable crops (GIS GCHP2E), SYPPRE project.
Boiffin, Jean. Territoire : agronomie, géographie, écologie, où en est-on ? Le point de vue d’un chercheur agronome. Natures Sciences Sociétés, vol. 12, no 3, 2004, p. 307‑09. https://doi.org/10.1051/nss:2004043
Franchi, Aurélie, et al. Landscape Atlases. Landscape identification, characterisation and assessment method. 2015, p. 115. ISBN: 978-2-11-139389-9.
Martin, Philippe et al. Reconstituer des assolements de rotations à l’échelle d’un territoire agricole avec l’outil RPG-Explorer. Colloque ABC’Terre, 2016, 18p. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544623.
Toqué Clotilde et al. 2020 - Combiner expertise, expérimentation et simulation pour une gestion durable des adventices: les plateformes prospectives Syppre.Innovations Agronomiques 81, 173-187.https://dx.doi.org/10.15454/2rpz-3y25.
| Keywords | Territory ; Crop rotation ; Spatialisation ; SYPPRE |
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