Pierre Gasselin

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Department of Science for Action and Development

Purpose: Agricultural advisory services are perceived by many actors involved in rural development as a key driver behind innovation processes in agriculture. However, changes in national and global contexts cause dramatic changes in the orientation of advisory services, their organisation and their methods of intervention. This article aims to ana...

Small-scale coffee producers are particularly exposed to a very fluctuant market. The present work aims at characterising the adaptation of small-scale coffee and honey producers to the 1999–2003 coffee crisis in the Guatemalan Highlands from a systemic and agronomical perspective. Working with a homogeneous sample of 34 families we identify up to...

De nouveaux modèles agricoles et alimentaires se déploient dans les territoires en réponse aux critiques des formes anciennes et pour faire face à de nouveaux enjeux. Ils incarnent des archétypes de la diversité observée, des projets d’acteurs ou bien de nouvelles normes. Les auteurs analysent ici des situations de coexistence et de confrontation d...

This article discusses the economic dimensions of agroecological farming systems in Europe. It firstly theoretically elaborates the reasons why, and under what conditions, agroecological farming systems have the potential to produce higher incomes than farms that follow the conventional logic. This theoretical exposition is then followed by a prese...

References to agroecology have gradually started appearing in national and international public policies. We examine the extent to which agroecology is becoming a frame of reference for public action in the French national and regional context. Using textual statistics, we analyzed institutional documents concerning agroecology put out by public po...

This qualitative study explores the changing landscape of agricultural work in France, with a specific focus on transitions. The political emphasis on agroecological transition within the 2014 Law for the Future of Agriculture underscores the pursuit of a triple performance—economic, ecological, and social. Thematic analysis reveals four main categ...

En Bretagne, malgré la spécialisation agricole régionale héritée des politiques de modernisation, les exploitations et profils d’agriculteurs et agricultrices demeurent diversifiés dans un certain nombre de territoires de cette région. En réponse aux interrogations des élus d'un territoire rural du sud-est morbihannais, une étude a permis d'analyse...

Le projet ACTION a validé l’usage de la méthode IDEA4 (Indicateurs de Durabilité d’une Exploitation Agricole version 4) avec trois résultats majeurs : 1) sa capacité à être utilisée pour différents usages (enseignement, recherche, conseil, accompagnement, action publique) et pour la majorité des systèmes (grandes cultures, élevages, arboriculture,...

The ACTION project validated the use of the IDEA4 method (Farm Sustainability Indicators 4 th version) with three major outcomes: i) its versatility for use in a variety of contexts (education, research, agricultural advice, support, public action) and in a majority of farming systems (crops, livestock, orchards, viticulture, and market gardening);...

Literature reviews stand as familiar and relevant tools within the research community, as mean to produce a state of knowledge to justify the relevance of a research question. Among the many methods that can be used, systematic approaches are developing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). These review methodologies employ rigorous techniqu...

This article presents the conceptual framework for assessing farm sustainability using the IDEA4 method. IDEA4 combines a dual assessment approach based on sustainable agriculture objectives and the properties of sustainable farming systems. It is rooted in the domains of strong sustainability, strong agroecology and the multifunctionality of agric...

The confrontations of stakeholder visions about agriculture and food production has become a focal point in the public sphere, coinciding with a diversification of agrifood models. This study analyzes the debates stemming from the coexistence of these models, particularly during the initial term of neoliberal-centrist Emmanuel Macron’s presidency i...

Cette note résume une étude des représentations sociales de la biodiversité dans la vallée du Llech qui s’inscrit dans le projet de recherche OTATA. Celui-ci visait à créer une culture commune des grands enjeux autour de la transition agroécologique par l’alimentation, l’agriculture, la gestion de l’eau et de la biodiversité de la vallée du Llech....

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC), font l’objet d’un regain d’intérêt parmi les agriculteurs à l’échelle mondiale. Rapprochant consommateurs et producteurs, ces circuits de commercialisation sont promus comme permettant une meilleure récupération de la valeur ajoutée. Ils sont posés en élément de réponse face aux pr...

The tropical region of Hopelchén, southeastern Mexico, is a place of high contrasts in terms of the agricultural intensity of production systems and landscape configuration: It presents enormous areas of conserved forest and at the same time the highest rate of deforestation in Mexico. The consequences of agricultural intensification in this region...

Cette communication montre en quoi la coexistence et la confrontation de l'agriculture biologique (AB) avec les agricultures non-bio sont un enjeu de connaissance et d'accompagnement, notamment dans la période actuelle d'interrogations sur le développement de l'AB.

Over the last 20 years or so, farmers the world over have been expressing renewed interest in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs). Bringing consumers and producers closer together, these marketing channels are being promoted as a means of recovering added value more effectively. They are seen as part of the solution to the problems associated with lon...

With the collapse of farming populations in Western societies and the spread of agroecology, agricultural work is being transformed. This changing environment is opening the door to new configurations and new forms of free or unpaid labour in agriculture, raising questions about the understanding and future of agricultural activity. Our aim is to c...

In metropolitan France, nearly one in five livestock farmers sell part of their production via short food supply chains (SFSC), in very different configurations. Newly established breeders, especially those from non-agricultural backgrounds, are involved in these increasingly diverse sales methods. Sales, and sometimes transformation, complicate wo...

IDEA4 is a method for assessing and analyzing farm sustainability. Its theoretical framework combines a dual approach based on the three dimensions of sustainability - agroecological, socio-territorial, economic - and the five properties of sustainable agricultural systems: Capacity to produce and reproduce goods and services, autonomy, robustness,...

This book is based on the premise that an improved understanding of the coexistence and confrontation of agricultural and food models, and thus of their interactions at different spatial and organisational scales, facilitates recognition and support for combinations of these models that can potentially be useful for sustainable territorial developm...

Place-based coordinations are becoming strategically important to ensure the agroecological transition. Indeed, collaborations between farms, in spite of all their diversity, are necessary to make agroecological innovation possible since ecological and biogeochemical flows exceed the farm scale. But the segmentation and heterogeneity of ‘agricultur...

This book analyses situations of coexistence and confrontation of agricultural and food models according to four major dimensions of territorial development: the tension between specialisation and diversification; innovation; adaptation; and food transition. New agricultural and food models are being deployed in territories around the world in resp...

Le tocsin a sonné. L'urgence écologique, énergétique, mais aussi sociale et alimentaire, impose de métamorphoser les formes d'agriculture et d'alimentation dont nous sommes les héritiers. La diversité des agricultures, qui façonne notre histoire depuis le Néolithique, est le fruit et le ferment d'une diversité alimentaire. Penser et engager cette t...

The higher intensity of labor observed in many agroecological farming systems has been little studied by the scientific community, especially in terms of work organization. Narrative interview research concerning 34 farmers in six French farm machinery cooperatives, on the basis of the farming styles framework, allows us to highlight a specific sty...

Robots are heralded as part of a new revolution in agriculture. The agricultural robot’s capacity to reduce working time or improve working conditions is often advanced as a major contribution to sustainable agriculture. But the transformations of work appear to be more complex. Here we review the transformations of work subsequent to adoption of a...

Le développement de la traite robotisée connait en France un essor sans précédent depuis les années 2000. Alors que beaucoup de travaux s'intéressent aux transformations techniques de l'exploitation, la question de savoir quels types d'exploitation investissent dans un robot de traite reste soumise à des réponses contradictoires. Nous proposons ici...

Le développement des Appellations d'Origine Protégée (AOP) s'est construit en alternative aux logiques d'industrialisation et de standardisation des agricultures, en revendiquant des modes de production ancrés dans leur terroir, valorisant souvent des races et espèces régionales, ce qui conduit parfois à présenter les AOP comme des dispositifs favo...

Although evidence continues to indicate an urgent need to transition food systems away from industrialized monocultures and toward agroecological production, there is little sign of significant policy commitment toward food system transformation in global North geographies. The authors, a consortium of researchers studying the land-food nexus in gl...

French farm machinery cooperatives (Cuma) are confronted with greater diversity in production systems. Little studied, the question of diversity in agricultural collectives is central to questioning the evolution and sustainability of cooperatives within their territory. Is it possible to work together with a diversity of systems and associated val...

This paper aims to study conditions of the early stage of collective action in the Val Llech project inspired by Biovallée de la Drôme, a territorial approach to ecological transitions. From interviews with key actors regarding their motivations and participation in the project, we examined which parts of their perception of the issues to be addres...

Les Organismes nationaux à vocation agricole et rurale (Onvar) représentent des structures collectives très originales au service du développement durable intégré des territoires. Une grille issue de l’économie institutionnelle d’appréciation de la valeur ajoutée territoriale est appliquée à un matériau empirique original (rapport d’évaluation d’ac...

Face aux nouveaux enjeux de l’agriculture, les collectifs d’agriculteurs sont encouragés pour favoriser les pratiques agroécologiques. Les Coopératives d’Utilisation de Matériel Agricole (Cuma) sont en particulier des lieux propices à ces développements. Ces coopératives se transforment, notamment face à une diversité plus importante des systèmes p...

Au regard des autres pays, la France se caractérise par la présence forte et continue des Cuma depuis maintenant 75 ans. La plasticité de cette forme organisationnelle explique son développement singulier et son adaptabilité à des pratiques sociales très différentes (du partage de machines à la réflexion sur la transition agroécologique). Dans ce t...

The higher intensity of labour observed in many agroecological farming systems is barely examined by science, particularly in terms of work organization. Our research on the French farm machinery cooperatives, based on the farming styles framework, allows highlighting a particular style of farm work conducive for the agroecological transition. Farm...

Agricultural robots are promoted as a solution to satisfy a growing demand for products while minimizing resource use. Following the recent development of the industry of farming robotics, we question how these technologies transform agriculture in a critical way. We carried out a systematic review of literature questioning the transformations of w...

Ce chapitre rend compte des modalités de coopération locale entre agriculteurs hétérogènes engagés dans des coopératives d’utilisation de matériel agricole (Cuma). Les auteurs montrent que les agriculteurs de chacune des cinq Cuma étudiées, quoique différents (bio et conventionnels, agriculture de conservation ou non, diverses productions et modali...

https://link.springer.com/journal/41130/volumes-and-issues/101-2

https://youtu.be/nvWc_c_tGsY

The coexistence and confrontation of agricultural and food models are an issue that is evincing much interest from the media and the political and professional fields. It is also an active area of research, a fact which led to a call for articles and the publication of a special issue. This article introduces and analyzes the 9 articles selected an...

This article proposes a research agenda for situations of coexistence of territorial agricultural and food models. Indeed, new agricultural and food models are being deployed at the territorial scale in response to criticisms of existing models and to meet new challenges. These new models embody archetypes of observed diversity, actors’ projects or...

Alors que l'agroécologie est fortement débattue depuis 2012 en France, cet article révèle une agroécologie silencieuse et peu visible parmi les agriculteurs conventionnels, à partir d'études de cas de Cuma (coopératives d'utilisation de matériel agricole). Ces agriculteurs mobilisent davantage les fonctionnements écologiques grâce à la coopération...

In developed countries, the number of people working in agriculture keeps going down. Agricultural work is changing as wage-earning is increasing as well as part-time work and outsourcing. At the same time, robots are developed in many agricultural sectors (livestock, horticulture, field crops) and are part of the changes in work. This systematic r...

The contribution of the multi-level perspective (MLP) to study transition dynamics is widely recognized. MLP involves examining interactions between three socio-technical levels: niche, regime and landscape. Empirical analysis of niche-regime interactions when applying this framework to agricultural transitions to sustainability remains challenging...

Agronomists have developed a wide range of methods and diagnostic tools to qualify or evaluate the situations they encounter at different scales and organization levels (parcel, farm, territory) and to meet various objectives (production, quality and health, soil fertility, biodiversity, diffuse pollution, economic performance, landscape, etc...)....

Presentación del artículo "van der Ploeg J. D. et al. 2019. The economic potential of agroecology: empirical evidence from Europe in Journal of Rural Studies, 71:46-61."

Esta comunicación presenta el proceso y los resultados del Proyecto CAP VERT cuyo objetivo fue analizar la relación entre nuevas formas de cooperación entre productores y procesos de transición agroecológica en Francia. Primeramente, hacemos una breve recapitulación histórica de la “modernización” de la agricultura francesa, propugnada “exitosament...

Cet article présente le nouveau cadre conceptuel d’évaluation de la durabilité de l’exploitation agricole développé dans la méthode IDEA v4. Il combine une approche évaluative basée sur les objectifs assignés à une agriculture durable et une évaluation des propriétés des systèmes agricoles durables. Il s’ancre dans le champ de la durabilité forte,...

The Natural Resource Economics Review (Departmental Bulletin Paper, Natural Resource Economics Division, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University)

Following to the presentation about the transformation of French family farming, this article aim at studying the concept of agricultural model and how it leads to discuss the stakes of coexistence and confrontation of different forms of agriculture. In the first part of my presentation, I shall expose the main features of French agriculture and it...

In the Global North, local inter-farm cooperation offers opportunities for farmers to better access and manage equipment, labor and material resources. Yet, its potential to pave the way to organize the local collaborations needed for the agroecological transition remains hidden. This paper, based on the experience of French farm machinery cooperat...

Confrontés à une plus grande variabilité climatique, une volatilité accrue des cours et à des impasses agronomiques grandissantes, des agriculteurs cherchent à gagner en autonomie en s'engageant dans des pratiques et systèmes agricoles intensifiant l'usage de processus écologiques. Ils mobilisent pour cela une diversité de formes de coopérations av...

In contemporary times where farming models are challenged through deep transformations of agricultural organizations and markets, this books proposes a new visit of the diversity of family forms of production to explore their current transformations all over the world. By adopting a comprehensive perspective it allows bringing together several dime...

Les tergiversations nationales et européennes autour de l'interdiction du glyphosate ont à nouveau illustré la dépendance de l'agriculture française aux pesticides, notamment en agriculture de conservation. Ce modèle technique, basé sur le non-labour, s'accompagne majoritairement de l'usage d'herbicides, en particulier ceux à base de glyphosate. Ce...

La récente mise à l'agenda politique de l'agroécologie en France a suscité de nombreux débats et éclairages sur ce qui peut être qualifié d'agroécologique. Cet article révèle une agroécologie particulière, se développant de façon silencieuse et peu visible parmi les agriculteurs conventionnels. À partir d'études de groupes en Cuma (coopératives d'u...

Agricultural advisory services are important to improve farm performances and the farmers’ ability to innovate. However, their effectiveness is regularly called into question. In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of agricultural advisory services and show how the mechanisms and methods used to provide advice have changed over time. There exist...

Globalisation has not standardised different territories’ agricultural and food models, despite their worldwide “circulation” for example during the green revolution, the industrialisation of food processing and distribution or in the affirmation of agroecology as a shared horizon (FAO, 2018). Territories, sectors and innovation systems are thus ma...

Muitos pecuaristas franceses, sócios de cooperativas de maquinas, procuram se tornar mais autônomos em relação aos mercados. Para concretizá-lo, eles desenvolvem novas práticas através de uma maior cooperação entre produtores. Nosso trabalho, baseado na análise de seis cooperativas de maquinas, visa esclarecer esse fenômeno, com base no trabalho an...

Muitos pecuaristas franceses, sócios de cooperativas de maquinas, procuram se tornar mais autônomos em relação aos mercados. Para concretizá-lo, eles desenvolvem novas práticas através de uma maior cooperação entre produtores. Nosso trabalho, baseado na análise de seis cooperativas de maquinas, visa esclarecer esse fenômeno, com base no trabalho an...

Many French livestock farmers, member of farm machinery cooperatives, seek to become more autonomous in relation to markets. To realize it, they develop new farming practices by relying to a greater extent on peer-to-peer cooperation. Our communication, based on the study of six machinery coops , aims to shed new light on this phenomenon, building...

This article shows how new theoretical work on assessing sustainability of farms, carried out as part of a multidisciplinary approach, allowed a new theoretical framework to be develop, along with version 4 of the IDEA Method (Indicateurs de Durabilité d'une Exploitation Agricole). The first section divides existing studies taken from the literatur...

La coexistence et la confrontation des modèles agricoles et alimentaires est une thématique d’actualité dans le champ professionnel et politique mais qui reste peu instruite dans la recherche. Croisant les observations du Nord et du Sud et à l’écoute des préoccupations de professionnels agricoles, le département SAD a souhaité mettre en avant la co...

Autonomy is a key principle of agroecology. First scientific works of Gliessman and Altieri have positioned autonomy from the markets and external forces as one of the goals of the agroecological prospect. Farmers' and peasants' organizations, firstly in Latin America, have adopted this goal to strengthen their action for the emancipation and the l...