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INTRODUCTION: In Europe, increasing the area cultivated with grain legumes has been identified as a lever to mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, climate change will also impact these crops (Marteau-Bazouni et al., 2024). It is thus necessary to explore adaptation options to sustain grain legume performances in the context of climate change.
To better design innovations for adaptation, it is important to consider the needs and activities of stakeholders (Beveridge et al., 2018; Cerf et al., 2012). Although several studies have surveyed producers and experts for their perceptions of climate change and adaptation in Europe (e.g., Peltonen-Sainio et al., 2020), no data are available for grain legumes.
The objectives of this study were to assess (i) stakeholders’ perceptions of climate change and its impacts on grain legumes, (ii) the actions they imagine to develop innovations for adaptation, and (iii) the knowledge that is currently available, as well as the knowledge they would need to implement these actions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in different stages of grain legume value chains in France. Participants were identified with a snowball sampling. First, we selected advisors from 10 regional Chambers of Agriculture to cover a large part of the French territory. Participants were then asked for contacts in other professional sectors: cooperatives and industries (11 participants), extension services (6), and seed breeding and multiplication (5). We analyzed interview recordings to identify stakeholders’ perceptions of climate change and possible adaptation options related to their activities. We then derived profiles of stakeholders based on their perceptions of climate change and adaptation.
RESULTS: A majority of participants reported that climate change has already negatively impacted grain legumes’ performances. They reported a rise in the occurrence of heat stress, milder winters with cold snaps, and an unequal repartition of rain characterized by an increased frequency of drought periods and heavy rains, which represent major constraints for pea, faba bean, and lentil management and performances. The impacts of climate change on biotic pressure (weeds, pests, pathogens), on the frequency of extreme events, and on the interannual climate variability are considered among the main challenges for adaptation. Conversely, the average temperature increase is regarded as an opportunity for species such as soybean, lentil, and chickpea, especially in the northern half of France.
The participants proposed various contributions to climate change adaptation, such as experimenting or supporting the experimentation of agronomic levers, breeding grain legume varieties adapted to changing climate conditions, supporting the introduction of new species, creating value to secure producers’ income in spite of climate variability, and sharing knowledge on grain legume cultivation or climate change. Each profile was associated with different innovations, space and time scales for action, and knowledge needs.
DISCUSSION: Although the participants have observed, tested, and imagined numerous adaptation options, they perceived that climate and technical constraints, as well as sociotechnical lock-ins, limit the effectiveness of these adaptations. Producing and sharing knowledge among the various stakeholders is thus a challenge to support the adaptation of grain legume cultivation to current and future climate. We propose here an original synthesis to gather ideas and identify future research areas.
Our results raise the need for new methods to handle adaptation to climate change, balance short-term and long-term objectives, and establish synergies between researchers and various stakeholders to design effective adaptation strategies for grain legumes.
REFERENCES:
Beveridge, L., Whitfield, S., and Challinor, A. (2018). Crop modelling: towards locally relevant and climate-informed adaptation. Climatic Change, 147(3–4), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2160-z
Cerf, M., Jeuffroy, M.-H., Prost, L., and Meynard, J.-M. (2012). Participatory design of agricultural decision support tools: taking account of the use situations. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 32(4), 899–910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-012-0091-z
Marteau-Bazouni, M., Jeuffroy, M.-H., and Guilpart, N. (2024). Grain legume response to future climate and adaptation strategies in Europe: A review of simulation studies. European Journal of Agronomy, 153, 127056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2023.127056
Peltonen-Sainio, P., Sorvali, J., and Kaseva, J. (2020). Winds of change for farmers: Matches and mismatches between experiences, views and the intention to act. Climate Risk Management, 27(November 2019), 100205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2019.100205
| Keywords | grain legumes; adaptation; climate change; knowledge for action; survey |
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