Background and challenges

In the face of climate change, soil depletion, and stagnating yields, diversified cropping systems have the advantage of low fossil and chemical inputs, reducing negative externalities on ecosystems, while benefiting from the biological regulation provided by cultivated biodiversity. To promote the widespread use of these systems and thus ensure the agro-ecological transition, we need to better understand the functioning and design of this global ecosystem, from the interactions between plants and the complex of pests and diseases to the interactions between markets and the value chains of these diversified systems. 

The main challenge is therefore to study the synergy/antagonism effects generated by these biodiversity-based systems. 

More prosaically, our analysis is based on the fruitful connection between our previous studies in two different disciplines. On the one hand, in complementarity economics to understand the adoption process of different agroecological cropping systems (Fares et al., 2018; Minviel et al., 2023) and mixed farming systems (Fares et al., 2023; Minviel et al., 2022). This approach, derived from the theory of supermodularity in mathematics, makes it possible to consider the complementarity/competition effects between innovative agricultural practices, niche channels (short or long), or labels and environmental certifications. On the other hand, our work in IPM focuses on complex pathosystems, defined as systems in which a mixture of phytopathogens coexist and whose synergistic/antagonistic effects need to be analyzed to better understand the  resulting impact in terms of disease severity (Lamichhane and Venturi, 2015; Dutt et al., 2022).

Objectives 

To carry out this interdisciplinarity analysis, our proposal is structured around a consortium of researchers from four INRAE departments (ACT, AgroEcoSystem, SPE, EcoSocio). Our aim is to study:

1. How these effects of complementarity/competition (synergy/antagonism) are analyzed in the different disciplines
2. How "conceptual bridges" can be built between these different disciplinary approaches.

At the end of this process, we hope to produce a position paper proposing a unified framework for analysis, or at least pointing the way towards building such a framework, and laying the groundwork for a future interdisciplinary or even transdisciplinary project.

In order to work on "conceptual bridges" between disciplines, we propose an approach consisting of a series of concerted actions structured in three main stages: the first, knowing each other to co-constructing a curriculum and a work agenda; the second,  organizing workshops and seminars, with three major workshops being proposed; and the third, reflective analysis and collaborative writing. The organization of reflection and writing retreats will lead us, at the end of this exploratory project, to the production of a "position paper".

Involved research units and partnership:

Contacts / coordination :