PPR BeCreative (Built pEstiCide-free agRoecosystEms At TerrItory leVEl ; 2020-2026 - ANR-20-PIPA-0001)

Context and challenges

Farmers are called upon to implement agroecological production strategies to reduce the use of synthetic inputs and achieve economic, environmental, and social performance. Few studies focus on the performance of agroecological farms and the farming strategies that enable them to achieve the performance levels expected a) by farmers and b) by society. Among the performance criteria, crop health management is often considered according to a specific practice or pest, but rarely in relation to the “agroecosystem’s health”. How is crop health defined in agroecological farms, and how does this definition of health relate more generally to agroecological performance as perceived in existing EEA assessment tools?

Goals

This PhD thesis aims to analyze the agroecologisation of crop farms and their performance. Based on case studies, we will analyze farmers' strategies and the agroecological levers they implement. Specifically, we will examine their connection to crop and agroecosystem health and the indicators they use in their management by combining methods and concepts of systems agronomy and management science.
This analysis will provide insight into the concept of agroecological performance in relation to farmers' objectives, the agroecological levers they used, and the underlying factors and conditions. 

The first challenge is to produce a typology of agroecologisation forms for field crop farms. In particular, we will analyze how crop health management structures farmers' strategic choices with regard to the levers of agroecology mobilized. A second issue concerns the qualification of the agroecological performance of farms. Within the framework of this PhD thesis, we will examine the concept of agroecological performance in relation to farmers' strategic objectives and how performance is represented in agroecological evaluation tools. A third challenge that this PhD thesis will address is the relationship between external and internal farm factors and the level of agroecological performance.